Non-transitory computer-readable information recording medium, information processing apparatus, and communications system

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus requests, via one of networks, an apparatus to carry out process, the apparatus being connectable to the networks; receives identification information that is used to identify a user; acquires sets of the communications information that includes a first set of the communications information to be used to connect to the apparatus via a first network of the networks; determines, based on the identification information, whether to use the first network to request the apparatus to carry out the process; when determining to use the first network to request the apparatus to carry out the process, switch a second network of the networks used to carry out communications, to the first network to be used to carry out communications, the second network being different from the first network; and requests, via the first network, the apparatus to carry out the process.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/047,801, and is based on and claims the benefitof priority to Japanese Priority Application No. 2015-041083, filed onMar. 3, 2015, and Japanese Priority Application No. 2016-015568, filedon Jan. 29, 2016, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a non-transitory computer-readableinformation recording medium, an information processing apparatus, and acommunications system.

2. Description of the Related Art

It is convenient for a user if the user carrying a terminal can connectthe terminal to an apparatus such as an image forming apparatuswirelessly, and use the apparatus, because no wired connection isneeded. However, in many cases, a wireless communications parameter orsuch is needed to be set to the terminal for wirelessly communicatingwith the apparatus. A work to set such a wireless communicationsparameter to the terminal may be not necessarily easy for the user.

A technology has been known to set a wireless communications parameterto a terminal without the need of user setting or with a minimized usersetting (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 5121212 (Patent ReferenceNo. 1)). Patent Reference No. 1 discloses a management apparatus which,for enabling a wireless connection of a wireless communications unit tothe same apparatus using different wireless communications parameters,reads information stored in the user's Near Field Communication (NFC)chip, and sets a wireless communications parameter for a case where theuser is at home or another wireless communications parameter for a casewhere the user is outside, depending on the read information.

SUMMARY

According to one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable informationrecording medium stores a program. The program is configured to cause atleast one processor installed in an information processing apparatus torequest, via one of a plurality of networks, an apparatus to carry out aprocess, the apparatus being connectable to the plurality of networks;receive identification information that is used to identify a user;acquire a plurality of sets of communications information that includesa first set of communications information to be used to connect to theapparatus via a first network of the networks; determine, based on theidentification information, whether to use the first network to requestthe apparatus to carry out the process; when determining to use thefirst network to request the apparatus to carry out the process, switcha second network of the networks, which is used to carry outcommunications, to the first network to be used to carry outcommunications, the second network being different from the firstnetwork; and request, via the first network, the apparatus to carry outthe process.

Other objects, features, and advantages will become more apparent fromthe following detailed description when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate examples of use cases expected for a printingsystem according to a first embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of one example of a printing system;

FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of one example of a portableterminal;

FIG. 4 is a hardware configuration diagram of one example of an imageforming apparatus and an information medium;

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram of one example of anauthentication server;

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram of one example of the printingsystem;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate examples of communications information;

FIG. 8 illustrates one example of an authentication information inputscreen page;

FIG. 9 illustrates a sequence of a printing process;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of one example of a connection possibilitydetermination process;

FIGS. 11A, 11B, 12A, and 12B illustrate examples of screen page examplesof an application displayed on a display unit of the portable terminal;

FIG. 13 illustrates another example of the communications information;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of one example of a connection possibilitydetermination process using priority;

FIG. 15 is a sequence diagram of one example of a procedure for theportable terminal to store an employee ID and a password in aninformation storage part;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart of one example of a connection possibilitydetermination process (a second embodiment);

FIG. 17 is a functional block diagram of one example of a projectionsystem (a third embodiment);

FIG. 18 illustrates a sequence of one example of a projection process(the third embodiment);

FIG. 19 is a functional block diagram of one example of a printingsystem (a fourth embodiment);

FIG. 20 illustrates one example of URL information and a URL;

FIG. 21 is a sequence diagram of one example of functions of a serverpart;

FIG. 22 is a sequence diagram of one example of a printing process toacquire an IP address of an image forming apparatus (the fourthembodiment); and

FIG. 23 is a sequence diagram of one example of a printing process (thefourth embodiment).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

According to the above-mentioned wireless communications parametersetting method disclosed in Patent Reference No. 1, unnecessarycommunications may occur. For example, when the terminal is connectableto a plurality of networks, unnecessary communications may occur if theuser erroneously selects a wireless communications parameter differentfrom a proper one. When the terminal has been connected to a certainnetwork, further unnecessary communications may occur if the terminalautomatically tries to connect to a target apparatus via the currentlyused network which is not a proper one to connect to the targetapparatus.

In more detail, a case will now be assumed where an image formingapparatus is connected to an employee network dedicated for theemployees and a visitor network to be used by visitors. Generallyspeaking, a visitor is not allowed to use the employee network. Theemployee is expected to use the employee network separated from theoutside to carry out communications with a target apparatus, instead ofthe visitor network. That is, the user is expected to connect to theimage forming apparatus using the proper network. If a NFC chip stores awireless communications parameter for each network, a terminal carriedby the user reads the wireless communications parameter from the NFCchip, and sets it to the terminal. However, if the user has a pluralityof available wireless communications parameters, it may be difficult forthe user to select the proper one from these wireless communicationsparameters.

Also, if the user is an employee and the user selects the employeewireless communications parameter, the user cannot connect to the imageforming apparatus when the terminal is connected to a network such as3G, LTE, or the like, other than the employee network. In this case, theterminal may try to connect to the image forming apparatus via thenetwork currently connected such as 3G, LTE, or the like. If so, uselesscommunications may occur.

The present disclosure is advantageous for the above-mentionedsituation, and has an object to provide a program configured to, when aterminal or the like transmits a request to an apparatus which isconnectable to a plurality of networks, connect to a proper one of theplurality of networks.

Below, embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

<Use Cases Expected for a Printing System According to a FirstEmbodiment>

First, with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B, use cases expected for aprinting system 1 according to a first embodiment will be described.FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate examples of use cases expected for a printingsystem according to a first embodiment. An image forming apparatus 20 isconnected to a network N1 corresponding to an intracompany LAN, or thelike. The image forming apparatus 20 can carry out communications ofso-called P2P (Peer to Peer) using a network N2. An authenticationserver 80 (one example of an authentication unit) is connected to anetwork N3 connectable to the Internet. The network N1 has an accesspoint 7 for wireless communications.

Use Case 1

In a use case 1, a visitor 9 uses his or her own portable terminal 10,and wirelessly carries out communications with the image formingapparatus 20 for performing printing or the like. A description will nowbe made with reference to FIG. 1A.

(1) First, the visitor 9 holds the portable terminal 10 at a positionnear a short-range wireless communications unit 301 (described later) ofthe image forming apparatus 20, or puts the portable terminal 10 overthe short-range wireless communications unit 301. As a result, theportable terminal 10 acquires first communications information 1100 forconnecting to the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1, secondcommunications information 1300 for connecting to the image formingapparatus 20 via the network N2, and authentication connectioninformation 900 for connecting to the authentication server 80 via thenetwork N3.

(2) Then, the portable terminal 10 of the visitor 9 connects to theauthentication server 80 using the authentication connection information900. However, the portable terminal 10 of the visitor 9 cannot receivethe user's input of valid authentication information (an employee ID anda password) for connecting to the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N1. Therefore, the portable terminal 10 of the visitor 9 cannotbe authenticated by the authentication server 80.

(3) Because of not being able to be authenticated, the portable terminal10 of the visitor 9 tries to carry out communications using the secondcommunications information 1300. By using the second communicationsinformation 1300, the portable terminal 10 of the visitor 9 can carryout communications with the image forming apparatus 20. Thus, theportable terminal 10 of the visitor 9 starts communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 via the network N2.

Thus, the portable terminal 10 of the visitor 9 can carry outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 without using thenetwork N1 that is the intracompany LAN. Even if the portable terminal10 of the visitor 9 can connect to the network N3, the portable terminal10 of the visitor 9 cannot be authenticated by the authentication server80, and thus, cannot connect to the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N1. Thus, it is possible to limit, with the authenticationserver 80, the way of connection by the visitor 9 to the network N2.

Use Case 2

In a use case 2, an employee 8 carries out communications wirelesslywith the image forming apparatus 20 using his or her own portableterminal 10 for performing printing or the like. In this case, the imageforming apparatus 20 belongs to another division and the employee 8 doesnot normally use the image forming apparatus 20. A description will nowbe made with reference to FIG. 1B.

(1) First, the employee 8 holds the portable terminal 10 near or puts itover the short-range wireless communications unit 301 of the imageforming apparatus 20. Thereby, the portable terminal 10 acquires thefirst communications information 1100 for communications via the networkN1, the second communications information 1300 for communications viathe network N2, and, the authentication connection information 900 forconnecting to the authentication server 80 via the network N3.

(2) Then, the portable terminal 10 of the employee 8 uses theauthentication connection information 900 to connect to theauthentication server 80, and transmits an authentication requesttogether with authentication information (an employee ID and apassword). If the proper authentication information is transmitted, theportable terminal 10 of the employee 8 can be authenticated(authentication success) by the authentication server 80.

(3) In the case of authentication success, the portable terminal 10 ofthe employee 8 tries communications using the first communicationsinformation 1100. Because the portable terminal 10 of the employee 8 hasan authority to connect to the network N1, the portable terminal 10 ofthe employee 8 can connect to the intracompany LAN via the access point7, and carry out communications using the first communicationsinformation 1100. Thus, the portable terminal 10 starts communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1.

Thus, the portable terminal 10 of the employee 8 can be authenticatedvia the network N3 that is the intracompany LAN, and carry outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1that is the intracompany LAN. If the portable terminal 10 of theemployee 8 cannot be authenticated or cannot connect to the imageforming apparatus 20 via the network N1, also the portable terminal 10of the employee 8 can connect to the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N2. In this case, the portable terminal 10 of the employee 8 cancarry out printing or the like temporarily using the network N2.

Thus, according to the printing system 1 of the first embodiment, it ispossible to reduce the user's work to set the communicationsinformation, and also, visitors 9 and employees 8 can automaticallyselect the proper networks, respectively.

<Terms>

An “employee” is one of actual examples of the user of the portableterminal 10 and the image forming apparatus 20, and has an authority toconnect to the intracompany LAN (i.e., his or her portable terminal 10has the wireless communications parameter for connecting to theintracompany LAN previously set therein). This user can be called, alsoother than “employee 8”, “staff member”, “office worker”, “officestaff”, or the like.

A “visitor” is another one of actual examples of the user of theportable terminal 10 and the image forming apparatus 20, and is the userwho does not have an authority to connect to the intracompany LAN. Allthe users other than the employees 8 are visitors 9. Also visitors 9 canbe called any other name.

First Embodiment <System Configuration>

With reference to FIG. 2, a system configuration of the printing system1 according to the first embodiment will be described. The printingsystem 1 is one example of a communications system. FIG. 2 is aconfiguration diagram of one example of the printing system according tothe first embodiment. The printing system 1 of FIG. 2 includes theportable terminal 10, the at least one image forming apparatus 20, andthe authentication server 80. The portable terminal 10 and the imageforming apparatus 20 are connectable by wire or wirelessly via thenetwork N1 and the network N2. The portable terminal 10 and theauthentication server 80 are connectable by wire or wirelessly via thenetwork N3.

The portable terminal 10 is, as will be described later, an informationprocessing apparatus that can be carried by the user. Therefore, theportable terminal 10 and the image forming apparatus 20 or theauthentication server 80 are desirably connectable wirelessly via thenetworks N1 through N3. “Connectable” means that a function for aconnection is provided. Whether it is actually connectable depends on adetermination result, which will be described later with reference toFIGS. 9 and 10, and so forth.

The network N1 and the network N2 are different networks each of whichuses a wireless LAN. According to the first embodiment, “networks aredifferent” means that different wireless communications parameters areneeded for corresponding connections. For example, “networks aredifferent” means that different SSIDs (Service Set Identifiers) areneeded.

If the portable terminal 10 is carried by a visitor 9, the portableterminal 10 is not connected to the networks N1 and N3, and is connectedto the network N2 on demand. An employee 8 previously has an authorityto connect to the networks N1 and N3. Therefore, if the portableterminal 10 is carried by the employee 8, a SSID and a password of theaccess point 6, and a SSID and a password of the access point 7 areperversely set to the portable terminal 10. Therefore, the portableterminal 10 carried by the employee 8 can carry out communications withthe image forming apparatus 20 if it holds an IP address of the imageforming apparatus 20. The portable terminal 10 can carry outcommunications with the authentication server 80 if it holds an IPaddress of the authentication server 80.

Below, as one example, it is assumed that the networks N1 and N3 arenetworks such as the intracompany LANs for the portable terminal 10 toconnect to the image forming apparatus 20 via the wireless LAN (LocalArea Network). It is also assumed that the network N2 is a network fordirectly connecting to the image forming apparatus 20 through P2P usingWi-Fi Direct. However, the networks N1 through N3 are not limitedthereto. Specific examples of the networks N1 and N3 include, not onlynetworks such as intracompany LAN, but also WANs and/or the Internet.The specific examples of the networks N1 and N3 include also a cellphone network at a part thereof. Also, the network N2 can be a networkfor connecting to the image forming apparatus 20 via, for example, anad-hoc mode of a wireless LAN, a cell phone network, an infraredcommunications, Bluetooth (registered trademark), and/or the like. Inother words, the network N2 is a network not included in the companysuch as the intracompany LAN. As long as such an appropriate setting ismade as to separate the network N2 from the networks N1 and N3, thenetwork N2 can be, for example, an intracompany LAN for connecting tothe image forming apparatus 20 via a wireless LAN (for example, anetwork having a network address different from those of the networks N1and N3).

In FIGS. 1A and 1B, the network N1 is connected to the access point 7,and the network N3 is connected to the access point 6. However, thenetwork N1 and the network N3 can be connected to the same access point.In this case, for example, if they have different SSIDs, at leastlogical access points for when connecting to the networks N1 and N3 aredifferent. Also, even if the networks N1 and N3 have the same accesspoint and the same SSID, it is possible to prevent the portable terminal10 from simultaneously accessing the networks N1 and N3 if the networksN1 and N3 have different network addresses. Assuming that only theemployees can access the network N1, the networks N1 and N3 can have thesame network address (i.e., the same LAN).

Also, an information medium 30 is attached to the housing of the imageforming apparatus 20, and the portable terminal 10 and the informationmedium 30 can carry out communications via short-range wirelesscommunications.

The portable terminal 10 is a portable information processing apparatusoperated by the user, such as a smart phone. Specific examples of theportable terminal 10 can include a smart phone, a cell phone, a tabletterminal, a game machine, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a digitalcamera, wearable PC, a notebook PC, and so forth. In the portableterminal 10, an application capable of requesting the image formingapparatus 20 to provide a function (for example, sending a printingcommand to cause the image forming apparatus 20 to print the printtarget data, causing the image forming apparatus 20 to scan an originalcopy, causing the image forming apparatus 20 to transmit image data viafacsimile, causing the image forming apparatus 20 to copy an image,and/or the like) is installed. The portable terminal 10 generates aprint job including print target data concerning a printing command, ascanning job, a facsimile transmission job, a copying job, and so forth,and transmits them to the image forming apparatus 20.

The portable terminal 10 includes, as will be described later, ashort-range wireless communications unit such as a NFC chip. By puttingthe portable terminal 10 over the information medium 30 attached at apredetermined position of the hosing of the image forming apparatus 20,the user acquires a plurality of sets of the communications informationincluding the IP address, and so forth, for carrying out communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20. Then, by transmitting a print jobgenerated based on the thus acquired communications information to theimage forming apparatus 20, the portable terminal 10 can print the printtarget data by causing the image forming apparatus 20 to execute theprint job.

The application can be software such as a browser, document creationsoftware, a viewer, or the like, for carrying out communications withthe image forming apparatus 20 and requesting the image formingapparatus 20 to execute a job.

The image forming apparatus 20 is a printer, or the like, that receivesa print job or the like from the portable terminal 10, and prints printtarget data. The image forming apparatus 20 can be a multifunctionperipheral (MFP) having a plurality of functions such as, in addition toa printing function, a copying function, a scanner function, a facsimiletransmission and reception function, and so forth.

Also, the image forming apparatus 20 can be, for example, an outputtingapparatus such as a scanner apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, an imageprojection apparatus (projector), a rear projection apparatus, a Head UpDisplay (HUD) apparatus, an electronic blackboard, a digital signage, orthe like, or a sound outputting apparatus such as a speaker apparatus.According to the first embodiment, as a specific example of acommunications system, the printing system is described. However, it isnot necessary to limit thereto. For example, the communications systemcan be an image outputting system using an image outputting apparatusinstead of the image forming apparatus 20, a sound outputting systemusing a speaker apparatus instead of the image forming apparatus 20, orthe like. That is, the first embodiment can be applied to varioussystems using the portable terminal 10 that generates various jobs andimages or data convertible to images; and an apparatus (the imageforming apparatus 20, in the first embodiment) that executes the variousjobs and outputs the images or the data convertible to images receivedfrom the portable terminal 10. The first embodiment can also be appliedto a system where the portable terminal 10 and the apparatus carry outwireless communications only, and the apparatus does not output data.

The information medium 30 is a short-range wireless communications unitsuch as a NFC chip attached at a predetermined position of the housingof the image forming apparatus 20. That is, the information medium 30 isa NFC tag or the like. The information medium 30 stores communicationsinformation including an IP address of the image forming apparatus 20,to which the information medium 30 is attached. In more detail, theinformation medium 30 stores communications information for the portableterminal 10 to carry out communications with the image forming apparatus20 via the network N1, communications information for the portableterminal 10 to carry out communications with the image forming apparatus20 via the network N2, and authentication connection information for theportable terminal 10 to carry out communications with the authenticationserver 80 via the network N3. That is, the information medium 30 storesthe communications information corresponding to the number of networks,to which the portable terminal 10 and the image forming apparatus 20 areconnectable.

The portable terminal 10 can acquire the communications informationstored in the information medium 30 via the short-range wirelesscommunications. Then, as described above, the portable terminal 10 canexecute a print job through the image forming apparatus 20 bytransmitting the print job to the image forming apparatus 20 based onthe communications information thus acquired from the information medium30. A device that stores the communications information 1000 andtransmits it to the portable terminal 10 is not limited to theinformation medium 30 such as an NFC tag. Assuming that the imageforming apparatus 20 stores the communications information, the imageforming apparatus 20 can directly transmit the communicationsinformation 1000 to the portable terminal 10 using anothercommunications way capable of directly carrying out communications withthe portable terminal 10 without previously needing an address or thelike, such as, for example, Bluetooth (registered trademark), infraredrays, or the like. In this case, also the portable terminal 10 needs tohave a communications function such as Bluetooth or infrared rays.

The authentication server 80 is an information processing apparatus thatis used to authenticate the portable terminal 10. The authenticationserver 80 receives, from the portable terminal 10, authenticationinformation (an employee ID and a password), and determines, based onthe employee ID and the password, whether the employee authenticationsucceeds. If the authentication succeeds, “authentication success”information is returned to the portable terminal 10. If theauthentication is failed, “authentication failure” information isreturned to the portable terminal 10.

In the above-described printing system 1, the portable terminal 10 andthe image forming apparatus 20 are connectable via the two networks,i.e., the network N1 and the network N2. However, the number ofnetworks, via which they are connectable, can be any number greater thanor equal to 1 (it can be 3 or more).

Also, the above-described printing system 1 can include, for example, aprinting server or the like that stores print jobs transmitted by theportable terminal 10. Also, the printing system 1 can include any numberof the portable terminals 10, which is greater than or equal to 1.

<Hardware Configuration> <<Portable Terminal>>

The portable terminal 10 according to the first embodiment is, forexample, implemented by a hardware configuration shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 3is a hardware configuration diagram of one example of the portableterminal according to the first embodiment. The portable terminal 10shown in FIG. 3 includes an input unit 101, a display unit 102, anexternal I/F 103, a Random Access Memory (RAM) 104, a Read-Only Memory(ROM) 105, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 106, a communications I/F107, a Solid State Drive (SSD) 108, and a short-range wirelesscommunications unit 109. They are mutually connected by a bus B.

The input unit 101 is, for example, a touch panel, and is used to inputvarious operation signals to the portable terminal 10. Note that, theinput unit 101 can be a keyboard, a mouse or the like. The display unit102 is, for example, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), and displaysprocessing results of the portable terminal 10.

The external I/F 103 is an interface for an external device. Theexternal device can be a recording medium 103 a, or the like. Therecording medium 103 a can store a program(s) that implements functionsof the first embodiment. The portable terminal 10 can read and writeinformation via the external I/F 103 from/to the recording medium 103 a.

The recording medium 103 a is, for example, a recording medium such as aSD memory card. The recording medium 103 a can also be a recordingmedium such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, a DVD (DigitalVersatile Disk), a CD (Compact Disk), or a flexible disk.

The RAM 104 is a volatile semiconductor memory (a storage unit) thattemporarily stores programs, data, and so forth. The ROM 105 is anonvolatile semiconductor memory (a storage unit) that can hold programsand data even after the power supply thereto is turned off. The ROM 105stores programs and data such as a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)executed when the portable terminal 10 is started, OS settings, networksettings, and so forth.

The CPU 106 is a processing unit that reads programs and data from thestorage unit such as the ROM 105 or the SSD 108 to the RAM 104, andcarries out processes to control the entire portable terminal 10 andimplements the functions of the portable terminal 10.

The communications I/F 107 is an interface for carrying outcommunications via the network N1 and the network N2. For example, thecommunications I/F 107 is an interface for connecting the portableterminal 10 to an intracompany LAN or the like via a wireless LAN. Also,the communications I/F 107 is an interface for connecting to the imageforming apparatus 20 through Wi-Fi Direct. Thus, the portable terminal10 can carry out data communications via the communications I/F 107.Note that the communications I/F 107 can also be an interface forconnecting to a cell phone network, the Internet, or the like.

The SSD 108 is a nonvolatile storage unit that stores a program 108 aand data. The stored program 108 a and data include, for example, an OS(Operating System) that is basic software and controls the entireportable terminal 10, application software (hereinafter, simply referredto as “applications”) that provides various functions under the controlof the OS, and so forth. The SSD 108 manages the stored programs anddata with a predetermined file system and/or a DB (database). Note that,the portable terminal 10 can have, instead of or in addition to the SSD108, a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), or the like.

The short-range wireless communications unit 109 is, for example, acommunications unit for carrying out communications through a NFC chipor Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy. Thus, the portableterminal 10 can carry out data communications via the short-rangewireless communications unit 109.

The portable terminal 10 according to the first embodiment can implementvarious processes that will be described later using the above-mentionedhardware configuration.

<<Image Forming Apparatus and Information Medium>>

The image forming apparatus 20 and the information medium 30 accordingto the first embodiment are implemented by hardware configurations, forexample, as shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a hardware configuration diagramof one example for the image forming apparatus and the informationmedium according to the first embodiment. The image forming apparatus 20shown in FIG. 4 includes a controller 201, an operation panel 202, anexternal I/F 203, a communications I/F 204, and a printer 205. On theoutside (housing) of the image forming apparatus 20, a short-rangewireless communications unit 301 that implements the information medium30 is attached.

The controller 201 includes a CPU 211, a RAM 212, a ROM 213, a NVRAM214, and a HDD 215. The ROM 213 stores various programs and data. TheRAM 212 temporarily stores programs and data. The NVRAM 214 stores, forexample, setting information, and so forth. The HDD 215 stores variousprograms 215 a and data.

The CPU 211 reads the programs 215 a and data, setting information, andso forth, from the ROM 213, the NVRAM 214, the HDD 215, or the like tothe RAM 212, and carries out processes to control the entire imageforming apparatus 20 and implement functions of the image formingapparatus 20.

The operation panel 202 has an input part that is used to inputoperations of the user, and a display part that displays, for example,processing results or the like. The external I/F 203 is an interface foran external device. The external device can be a recording medium 203 aor the like. Thus, the image forming apparatus 20 can read and writeinformation via the external I/F203 from/to the recording medium 203 a.The recording medium 203 a can be a flexible disk, a CD, a DVD, a SDmemory card, a USB memory card, or the like.

The communications I/F 204 is an interface for carrying outcommunications via the network N1 and the network N2. Thus, the imageforming apparatus 20 can carry out data communications via thecommunications I/F 204. The printer 205 is a printing unit that outputsprint target data by printing it.

The short-range wireless communications unit 301 is, for example, acommunications unit that carries out communications via an NFC chip orBluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy. The information medium 30is implemented in a nonvolatile memory in the short-range wirelesscommunications unit 301. The short-range wireless communications unit301 can carry out communications with the short-range wirelesscommunications unit 109 of the portable terminal 10 to read informationfrom the information medium 30 and transmit information of theinformation medium 30 to the portable terminal 10, after detecting thatthe portable terminal 10 approaches the short-range wirelesscommunications unit 109. The short-range wireless communications unit301 is configured on the outside of the image forming apparatus 20 as aresult of, for example, a NFC chip being attached at a predeterminedposition on the housing of the image forming apparatus 20. In this case,it is desirable that the NFC chip is attached to such a position that itcan easily carry out short-range wireless communications with theportable terminal 10. The information in the information medium 30 canbe rewritten by the user of the image forming apparatus 20 using a NFCreader/writer, or the like.

Note that, instead of being configured outside the image formingapparatus 20, the short-range wireless communications unit 301 can alsobe configured inside the image forming apparatus 20 within such an areathat it can carry out short-range wireless communications with theportable terminal 10. Also, it is not necessary that the short-rangewireless communications unit 301 is integral with the image formingapparatus 20. That is, the short-range wireless communications unit 301can be placed near the image forming apparatus 20, or can be placed on aguide plate installed on a path toward the image forming apparatus 20,for example.

The image forming apparatus 20 and the information medium 30 accordingto the first embodiment can implement various processes that will bedescribed later using the above-mentioned hardware configurations.

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram of one example of theauthentication server 80. The authentication server 80 includes a CPU330, a ROM 302, a RAM, 303, a HDD 305, a display device 308, a networkI/F 309, a keyboard 311, a mouse 312, a medium drive 307, and an opticaldrive 314, which are connected via a bus 310. The CPU 330 executes aprogram 320 stored in the HD 304, and controls the entirety ofoperations of the authentication server 80. The ROM 302 stores a programto be used to drive the CPU 330, such as an IPL. The RAM 303 is used bythe CPU 330 as a work area. The HD 304 is a storage unit having anonvolatile memory, and stores the program 320 for carrying outauthentication, OS, and so forth.

The HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 305 controls reading and writing various datafrom/to the HD 304 under the control of the CPU 330. The display device308 displays various information such as a cursor, menus, windows,characters/letters, and images. The network I/F 309 is an interface forthe network N3. The keyboard 311 and the mouse 312 are input units. Thekeyboard 311 has a plurality of keys for inputting characters/letters,numeral values, various instructions, and so forth, and receives inputsfrom the keys. The mouse 312 receives an instruction to move a mousepointer, select or execute various commands, select processing targets,and so forth.

The medium drive 307 controls data reading and/or writing (storing)from/to a medium 306 such as a flash memory. The optical drive 314controls various data reading and/or writing from/to a detachablerecording medium such as a Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) 313.

Note that, the program 320 can have a form of a file having aninstallable or executable format, and can be circulated after beingstored in a computer-readable recording medium such as the medium 306,the CD-ROM 313, or the like. Alternatively, the program 320 can bedistributed as a result of being downloaded from a certain server-typeinformation processing apparatus.

Note that, the authentication server 80 can be implemented through cloudcomputing. That is, the hardware configuration of the authenticationserver 80 shown in FIG. 5 is not necessarily included in a singlehousing as an integral unit. That is, FIG. 5 shows hardwareelements/components that the authentication server 80 desirablyincludes.

<Software Configuration>

The printing system 1 according to the first embodiment can be expressedby, for example, function blocks shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a functionalblock diagram of one example of the printing system according to thefirst embodiment.

<<Functions of Portable Terminal>>

The portable terminal 10 of the printing system 1 includes anauthentication request part 11, an information acquisition part 12, aconnection possibility determination part 13, a UI display part 14, acommunications part 15, an information storage part 16, an operationreception part 17, and a communications switching control part 18. Thecommunications part 15 includes a first communications part 151, asecond communications part 152, and a server communications part 159.

The information acquisition part 12 is implemented by the CPU 106, theshort-range wireless communications unit 109, and so forth, and acquiresa plurality of sets of communications information for carrying outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20, and authenticationconnection information 900 for carrying out communications with theauthentication server 80, from the information medium 30 via theshort-range wireless communications.

The connection possibility determination part 13 is implemented by theCPU 106 and so forth, and selects, based on the plurality of sets of thecommunications information acquired from the information medium 30, oneof plurality of networks that are connectable to the image formingapparatus 20 to be used to carry out communications. According to thefirst embodiment, actually, based on the plurality of sets of thecommunications information acquired from the information medium 30,either the network N1 or the network N2 is selected to be used to carryout communications with the image forming apparatus 20.

The UI display part 14 is implemented by the CPU 106, the display unit102, and so forth, and generates and displays UI (user interface) screenpages.

The communications part 15 is implemented by the communications I/F 107and so forth, and carries out communications with the image formingapparatus 20 and communications with the authentication server 80. Inmore detail, according to the selection result of the connectionpossibility determination part 13, the first communications part 151carries out communications with the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N1, and the second communications part 152 carries outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N2.Also, the server communications part 159 carries out communications withthe authentication server 80 via the network N3.

The operation reception part 17 is implemented as a result of the CPU106 executing the application and cooperating with the input unit 101,and receives the user's operations.

The information storage part 16 is implemented by the CPU 106, the ROM105, the SSD 108, and so forth, stores the communications information1000 acquired from the information acquisition part 12, and reads thestored information. In the information storage part 16, theauthentication information (the employee ID and the password) of theuser of the portable terminal 10 that are input to and received by theoperation reception part 17 is stored.

The authentication request part 11 is implemented by the CPU 106 and soforth, and, based on the authentication connection information 900acquired from the information medium 30, carries out communications withthe authentication server 80 to transmit the authentication information(the employee ID and the password) and receive the authentication result(authentication success or authentication failure).

The communications switching control part 18 is implemented by the CPU106 and so forth. If it is determined to send a request to carry out ajob to the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1, and theportable terminal 10 is currently connected to another network than thenetwork N1, the communications switching control part 18 switches theother network to the first network N1 to be used to carry outcommunications.

<<Functions of Image Forming Apparatus>>

The image forming apparatus 20 of the printing system 1 includes a printfunction part 21. The print function part 21 is implemented by theprinter 205 and so forth, and prints print target data included in aprint job that the portable terminal 10 requests to execute. Note that,the image forming apparatus 20 can have, in addition to the printfunction part 21, a scanner function part that generates image data(electronic data) from an original copy that is read, a copying functionpart that copies an original copy that is read, a facsimile functionpart that transmits an original copy that is read or electronic datathrough facsimile via a telephone network or the like, and so forth.

The information medium 30 is implemented by the short-range wirelesscommunications unit 301, and stores the communications information 1000to be used to carry out communications with the image forming apparatus20 to which the information medium 30 is attached. Also, the informationmedium 30 transmits the communications information 1000 stored in theinformation medium 30 to the portable terminal 10 via the short-rangewireless communications according to a request from the informationacquisition part 12 of the portable terminal 10.

<<Functions of Authentication Server>>

The authentication server 80 has a transmission/reception part 81 and anauthentication part 82. Also, the authentication server 80 has anauthentication DB 83 created in the HD 304, the ROM 302, or the like.

TABLE 1 EMPLOYEE ID PASSWORD 001 AAA 002 BBB 003 CCC . . . . . .

Table 1 is one example of an authentication information table. Theauthentication information table such as that shown in Table 1 is storedin the authentication DB 83. In the authentication information table,the employee IDs and the passwords of all the employees who are allowedto use the image forming apparatus 20 are registered in such a mannerthat the employee IDs and the passwords are regarded as sets,respectively. The employee IDs are identification information such ascharacters/letters, signs, symbols, various marks, or the like, to beused to uniquely identify the respective employees of the company wherethe image forming apparatus 20 is installed.

The transmission/reception part 81 is implemented as a result of the CPU330 executing the program 320 and cooperating with the network I/F 309,and receives the authentication information (the employee ID and thepassword) from the portable terminal 10, and returns thereto theauthentication result, via the network N3.

The authentication part 82 searches for the same set of the employee IDand the password as those received by the transmission/reception part81. If the same set of the employee ID and the password as thosereceived is present in the authentication information table, it returnsauthentication success information to the portable terminal 10. If thesame set of the employee ID and the password as those received is notpresent in the authentication information table, it returnsauthentication failure information to the portable terminal 10.

<Communications Information Stored in Information Medium>

With reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B, the communications information 1000stored in the information medium 30 will now be descried. Note that, thecommunications information 1000 stored in the information storage part16 of the portable terminal 10 has the same configuration. FIGS. 7A and7B illustrates one example of the communications information.

The communications information 1000 shown in FIG. 7A includes theauthentication connection information 900 for carrying outcommunications with the authentication server 80 via the network N3, thefirst communications information 1100 for carrying out communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1, availabilityinformation 1200 that indicates whether communications via the networkN2 is available, and the second communications information 1300 forcarrying out communications with the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N2. Thus, the communications information 1000 includes aplurality of sets of the communications information, i.e., theauthentication connection information 900, the first communicationsinformation 1100, and the second communications information 1300.

The authentication connection information 900 is information necessaryfor the portable terminal 10 to carry out communications with theauthentication server 80 via the network N3 (for example, anintracompany LAN connected via a wireless LAN). The authenticationconnection information 900 includes the IP address of the authenticationserver 80 in the network N3, information that indicates whether SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) communications is available in the network N3,and so forth. Through authentication, a visitor 9 can be prevented fromconnecting to the intracompany LAN or the like, and only an employee 8can be connected to the intracompany LAN.

The authentication connection information 900 does not include the SSIDand the password to be used to connect to the intracompany LAN or thelike via the access point 6. This is because, as mentioned above, thenetwork N3 is expected to be used by the employee 8, and the SSID andthe password are previously set to the portable terminal 10 of theemployee 8. However, even if the SSID and the password of theintracompany LAN or the like are set in the authentication connectioninformation 900, the security is not so much reduced because theauthentication server 80 carries out authentication as to whether theuser is an employee.

The authentication connection information 900 is not necessarilyacquired from the image forming apparatus 20, and can be previouslystored in the portable terminal 120.

The first communications information 1100 is information necessary forthe portable terminal 10 to carry out communications with the imageforming apparatus 20 via the network N1 (for example, an intracompanyLAN connected via a wireless LAN). The first communications information1100 includes a first IP address that is an IP address of the imageforming apparatus 20 in the network N1, information that indicateswhether SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) communications is available in thenetwork N1, and so forth. Also, the first communications information1100 includes information to be used to identify the network such as theSSID of the intracompany LAN or the like. According to the firstembodiment, employee authentication is carried out before carrying outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20. Therefore, even ifthe password is set in the first communications information 1100 inaddition to the SSID, the security is not so much reduced.

However, it is possible to improve the security by not including thepassword and so forth in the first communications information. 1100. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 7B, the first communications information 1100that does not includes the encryption method, the password, the HTTPport number, and HTTPS port numbers can be stored in the informationmedium 30. The portable terminal 10 that can connect to the imageforming apparatus 20 via the network N1 should have already held thepassword and so forth, for connecting to the network N1. In contrastthereto, it is not desirable from a security viewpoint that the passwordand so forth are provided to the portable terminal 10 for which aconnection to the network N1 is not permitted. Therefore, the firstcommunications information 1100 as shown in FIG. 7B is desirable.

The SSID and the password of the first communications information 1100can be encrypted for improving the security. The decryption key fordecrypting the thus encrypted data is previously stored in the portableterminal 10, or is transmitted from the authentication server 80 whenthe authentication succeeds.

The communications information that includes only the information to beused to identify the network or the communications information where theSSID and the password are encrypted may be referred to as“communications information for the employees” (one example of a “firstset of communications information”).

The availability information 1200 indicates, if employee authenticationdoes not succeed, or the connection possibility determination part 13determines that communications with the image forming apparatus 20 viathe network N1 cannot be carried out, whether communications via thenetwork N2 is to be carried out. For example, in the communicationsinformation 1000 of FIGS. 7A and 7B, the availability information 1200is set to be “Yes”. Therefore, in this case, as will be described laterin detail, if employee authentication does not succeed or the connectionpossibility determination part 13 determines that communications withthe image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1 cannot be carried out,the portable terminal 10 tries communications with the image formingapparatus 20 via the network N2. In contrast thereto, if theavailability information 1200 is set to be “No”, the portable terminal10 cannot carry out communications with the image forming apparatus 20via the network N2.

The availability information 1200 is used for, for example, controllingcharging the user. Usage fee for the image forming apparatus 20 may becharged at mater rate for the number of printing sheets. For example,when the image forming apparatus 20 is installed in a company A, thecompany A is charged for usage fee without regard to whether an employee8 of the company A carries out printing or a visitor 9 for the company Acarries out printing. Therefore, the company A may completely denyprinting by visitors 9 for the image forming apparatus 20 installed at aplace where there are many visitors 9.

In contrast thereto, for example, a city hall, a library, or the like,needs to fulfill requests of visitors 9 to carry out printing.Therefore, in such a highly public place, the image forming apparatus 20is installed together with a coin mechanism, and printing by a visitor 9is permitted to the extent of the amount already paid by the user.

Thus, for the image forming apparatus 20 installed at a place where avisitor can be charged or a place where the number of printing sheets issufficiently small can permit a visitor 9 to carry out printing.Therefore, the availability information 1200 can control whether topermit a visitor 9 to use the image forming apparatus 20.

Note that, also in the first communications information 1100, suchavailability information can be set. Thereby, for example, it ispossible to prevent the employee 8 from carrying out communications withthe image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1 if the network N1 hasa problem concerning the security or the like.

The second communications information 1300 is information necessary forthe portable terminal 10 to carry out communications with the imageforming apparatus 20 via the network N2 (for example, P2P using Wi-FiDirect). The second communications information 1300 includes a second IPaddress that is an IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 in thenetwork N2, a SSID (Service Set Identifier) to be used to identify thenetwork N2, an encryption method and a password in the network N2, theHTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) port number or the HTTPS (HTTP overSSL/TLS) port number in the image forming apparatus 20 to be used forcarrying out communications via the network N2, and so forth. If theimage forming apparatus 20 does not encrypt information when carryingout communications, communications itself can be carried out withoutpasswords. Such communications information that stores the SSID and thepassword may be referred to as “communications information that can beused by visitors” (one example of a “second set of communicationsinformation”).

The above-mentioned information included in the authenticationconnection information 900, the first communications information 1100and the second communications information 1300 is one example. Theauthentication connection information 900, the first communicationsinformation 1100 and the second communications information 1300 caninclude various information to be used to carry out communications viathe network N3, the network N1, and the network N2, respectively. In theabove-mentioned communications information 1000, the first IP address isdifferent from the second IP address. However, these can be the same IPaddress.

If the portable terminal 10 and the image forming apparatus 20 can alsobe connected via, for example, a network N4, the communicationsinformation 1000 can include availability information that indicateswhether to permit communications via the network N4, and thirdcommunications information for carrying out communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 via the network N4.

<Employee ID and Password>

With reference to FIG. 8, inputting the employee ID and the passwordwill now be descried. FIG. 8 illustrates one example of anauthentication information input screen page. The authenticationinformation input screen page 941 includes a message 942 “input employeeID and password for communications with MFP”, an icon 943 of an MFP, anemployee ID input field 944, a password input field 945, an OK button946, and a CANCEL button 947. If the user inputs the employee ID in theemployee ID input field 944, inputs the password in the password inputfield 945, and presses the OK button 946, the employee ID and thepassword that are thus input are stored in the information storage part16.

The authentication information input screen page 941 can be displayed onthe display unit 102 by the user when the user wishes to store theemployee ID and the password in the portable terminal 10. Also, if theemployee ID and the password have not been stored to the informationstorage part 16 yet, the authentication information input screen page941 can be displayed on the display unit 102 immediately before theportable terminal 10 sends an authentication request to theauthentication server 80.

The application installed in the portable terminal 10 can be widelydistributed to the users of the image forming apparatus 20. Therefore,each user can freely store his or her employee ID and password in theportable terminal 10. However, as will be descried below, whether theemployee ID and the password are actually stored in the portableterminal 10 depends on each particular portable terminal 10.

For example, when the employees 8 are authenticated to use the imageforming apparatus 20 from the portable terminal 10 in a company A, theemployee IDs and the passwords may have been already stored in theirportable terminals 10. In a company B that authenticates the employees 8in the same way, the portable terminals 10 of the employees 8 of thecompany B may have stored their employee IDs and passwords of thecompany B. However, if an employee 8 of a company C that has no imageforming apparatus 20 to be used from the portable terminal 10 installsthe application in the portable terminal 10 outside the company C,neither employee ID nor password may be stored in the portable terminal10. Also, there may be a case where, neither employee IDs nor passwordsare stored even in the portable terminals 10 of the employees 8 of thecompanies A and B. Thus, there can be the portable terminals 10 thatstore neither employee IDs nor passwords.

<Process Detail>

Next, the process of the printing system 1 will be described in detail.

<<Printing Process>>

First, a flow of a printing process of the printing system 1 accordingto the first embodiment will be described. FIG. 9 illustrates a sequenceof a printing process according to the first embodiment.

In step S601, the user uses the UI display part 14, selects desiredprint target data via the application installed in the portable terminal10, and inputs a printing instruction. Thereby, a print job includingthe print target data selected by the user is generated.

In step S602, after the UI display part 14 of the portable terminal 10receives a print job execution notification, the UI display part 14transmits a request to acquire the communications information 1000 tothe information acquisition part 12. Thereafter, the portable terminal10 enters a state of waiting for detecting a start of short-rangewireless communications by the short-range wireless communications unit109. During the period of time, a screen page can be displayed on thedisplay unit 102 to urge the user to put the portable terminal 10 overthe position of the NFC chip (the information medium 30) of the imageforming apparatus 20.

In step S603, when the user puts the portable terminal 10 over theinformation medium 30, the information acquisition part 12 detects astart of short-range wireless communications with the information medium30, and acquires the communications information 1000 from theinformation medium 30.

In step S604, the information acquisition part 12 of the portableterminal 10 stores the communications information 1000 acquired from theinformation medium 30 in the information storage part 16.

In step S605, the information storage part 16 of the portable terminal10 reads the employee ID and the password, and requests theauthentication request part 11 to carry out authentication using theauthentication connection information 900 included in the communicationsinformation 1000.

In step S606, the authentication request part 11 of the portableterminal 10 uses the authentication connection information 900 toconnect to the authentication server 80, and transmits an authenticationrequest together with the authentication information (the employee IDand the password). Then, the authentication request part 11 acquires anauthentication result (success or failure) from the authenticationserver 80. The process thereafter depends on whether the authenticationresult indicates success or failure. Details will be described laterwith reference to FIG. 10.

In step S607, the authentication request part 11 of the portableterminal 10 transmits a determination request to the connectionpossibility determination part 13 to determine which one of theplurality of sets of the communications information included in thecommunications information 1000 is to be used to carry outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20.

In step S608, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 carries out a connection possibility determinationprocess. According to the first embodiment, in the connectionpossibility determination process, the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 generates any one of the following results.Details of the connection possibility determination process will bedescribed later.

(1) The portable terminal 10 cannot carry out communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 even using any one of the network N1 and thenetwork N2 (the selection result: communications not possible).

(2) The portable terminal 10 is to carry out communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 using the network N1 (the selection result:communications with the first communications part (151)).

(3) The portable terminal 10 is to carry out communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 using the network N2 (the selection result:communications with the second communications part (152)).

If the selection result from the connection possibility determinationpart 13 is the above-mentioned result (1), the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 carries out step S609. If the selection resultfrom the connection possibility determination part 13 is theabove-mentioned result (2), the connection possibility determinationpart 13 carries out step S611. If the selection result from theconnection possibility determination part 13 is the above-mentionedresult (3), the connection possibility determination part 13 carries outstep S614.

In step S609, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 transmits a display request to the UI display part14 to display a screen page (a communications not-possible screen pageof FIG. 12B) indicating that communications with the image formingapparatus 20 is not possible.

In step S610, when the UI display part 14 of the portable terminal 10receives the request to display the communications not-possible screenpage, it generates the communications not-possible screen page, anddisplays it on the display unit 102. Thus, it is reported to the userthat the portable terminal 10 that the user operates cannot carry outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20.

In step S611, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 transmits the print job execution request to thefirst communications part 151.

In step S612, when the first communications part 151 of the portableterminal 10 receives the print job execution request, it transmits theprint job execution request to the image forming apparatus 20. That is,the portable terminal 10 transmits the print job to the image formingapparatus 20 via the network N1 (for example, an intracompany LANconnected via a radio LAN).

In step S613, when the print function part 21 of the image formingapparatus 20 receives the print job from the portable terminal 10, itexecutes the print job to print the print target data. Thus, the usercan print the desired print target data using the image formingapparatus 20.

In step S614, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 transmits the print job execution request to thesecond communications part 152.

In step S615, when the second communications part 152 of the portableterminal 10 receives the print job execution request, it transmits theprint job execution request to the image forming apparatus 20. That is,the portable terminal 10 transmits the print job to the image formingapparatus 20 via the network N2 (for example, via P2P using Wi-FiDirect).

In step S616, when the print function part 21 of the image formingapparatus 20 receives the print job from the portable terminal 10, itexecutes the print job to print the print target data. Thus, the usercan print the desired print target data using the image formingapparatus 20.

Thus, in the printing system 1 according to the first embodiment, theportable terminal 10 acquires, from the information medium 30, theplurality of sets of the communications information for carrying outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20. Then, after theportable terminal 10 is authenticated that the user is an employee, theportable terminal 10 can carry out communications with the image formingapparatus 20 based on one of the plurality of sets of the communicationsinformation and carry out printing through the image forming apparatus20. That is, the portable terminal 10 can carry out printing through theimage forming apparatus 20, by selecting one of the plurality ofnetworks connected to the image forming apparatus 20 and transmittingthe print job to the image forming apparatus 20 via the selectednetwork.

<<Authentication Result and Connection Possibility DeterminationProcess>>

Next, with reference to FIGS. 10-12B, the connection possibilitydetermination process of step S608 in response to the authenticationresult of step S606 in the printing process described above will bedescribed. In the connection possibility determination process, it isdetermined whether the first communications information 1100 or thesecond communications information 1300 included in the communicationsinformation 1000 acquired by the information acquisition part 12 is usedto carry out communications with the image forming apparatus 20. Inother words, in the connection possibility determination process, it isdetermined which one of the plurality of networks connected to the imageforming apparatus 20 is used to carry out communications.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of one example of the connection possibilitydetermination process according to the first embodiment. FIGS. 11A, 11B,12A and 12B illustrate examples of screen pages of the application ofthe portable terminal 10 displayed on the display unit 102. Now, a flowof a process of FIG. 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 11A,11B, 12A and 12B.

First, the user selects print target data from a list of print targetdata, or the like, displayed by the application on the display unit 102.As a result, as shown in FIG. 11A, a print condition screen page 901 isdisplayed on the display unit 102 of the portable terminal 10. The printtarget data 902, an icon 903 of the image forming apparatus 20, thenumber of print copies 904, color/monochrome 905, and, the sheet size906 are displayed in the print condition screen page 901. Initialsetting values that are previously set to the application or settingvalues that are set by the user most recently are displayed for thenumber of print copies 904, color/monochrome 905, and, the sheet size906. Therefore, the user can perform printing with the desired settingvalues (the printing conditions) with minimized setting changes, whenperforming printing through the image forming apparatus 20 from theportable terminal 10.

A how-to-use advice 907 includes, for example, an icon 907 a, and amessage 907 b “touch MFP to start print”, to urge the user to put theportable terminal 10 over the position of the short-range wirelesscommunications unit 301 (the NFC chip) of the image forming apparatus20. As a result of putting the portable terminal 10 over the position ofthe short-range wireless communications unit 301, the informationacquisition part 12 of the portable terminal 10 acquires thecommunications information 1000 from the information medium 30. Afterthe communications information is thus acquired, the process of FIG. 10is started.

In step S701 of FIG. 10, the authentication request part 11 of theportable terminal 10 determines whether the authentication resultacquired from the authentication server 80 indicates authenticationsuccess. The actual determination method will now be described for eachuse case described above. In use case 1 where the user is a visitor 9,the portable terminal 10 cannot connect to the access point 6. Thus, theportable terminal 10 cannot acquire the authentication result from theauthentication server 80 (for example, the employee of the company Buses the image forming apparatus 20 installed in the company A). Theabove-mentioned employee 8 of the company C also cannot connect to theaccess point 6 in use case 1. However, if the employee ID and thepassword have not been input to the portable terminal 10 (i.e., if noinput is performed onto the authentication information input screen page941), the authentication request part 11 does not try to send anauthentication request to the authentication server 80, and regards thatthe authentication result is authentication failure. Thus, it ispossible to omit communications for authentication.

In use case 2 where the user is an employee (i.e., the above-mentionedemployee of the company A), a case can be considered where the portableterminal 10 connects to the authentication server 80 via the accesspoint 6, and cannot acquire an authentication result, in many cases. Inthis case, based on the authentication connection information 900included in the communications information 1000, an authenticationrequest is sent to the authentication server 80 via the network N3, andan authentication result is acquired. If the authentication resultindicates authentication success, the process proceeds to step S702. Ifthe authentication result indicates authentication failure, the processproceeds to step S706.

Thus, as a result of the authentication server 80 determining whether toauthenticate the user, it is possible to prevent the user other than theemployees from connecting to the network N1 that is the intracompanyLAN. Also, as a result of the employee 8 being authenticated,communications with the image forming apparatus 20 is carried out viathe network N1 that is the intracompany LAN. Thus, the employee 8 cancarry out communications under the communications environment with highsecurity. Also, it is possible to prevent users other than the employeesfrom trying to connect to an IP address included in the network N1 towhich users other than the employees cannot connect. Thus, it ispossible to avoid occurrence of unnecessary communications.

Returning to FIG. 10, the connection possibility determination part 13then determines whether the SSID included in the first communicationsinformation is the same as the SSID of the network used for thecurrently carried out communications (S702). If the SSID is differenttherebetween, the communications switching control part 18 switches thenetwork connected by the portable terminal 20 to the network identifiedby the first communications information 1100 (S711). If the SSID and thepassword included in the first communications information 1100 areencrypted, the SSID and the password can be decrypted as a result ofacquiring information for decryption (decryption key) from theauthentication server 80, or the SSID and the password can be decryptedas a result of using information for decryption (decryption key or thelike) previously stored in the portable terminal 10. If the informationfor decryption is previously stored in the portable terminal 10, it ispreferable, from a security viewpoint, to delete the firstcommunications information 1100 including the SSID, in case ofauthentication failure.

In step S703 of FIG. 10, because the user is authenticated as being theemployee 8, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 requests the first communications part 151 to carryout communications with the image forming apparatus 20 via the networkN1, based on the first communications information 1100 included in thecommunications information 1000. Then, the first communications part 151tries communications with the image forming apparatus 20 using the firstcommunications information 1100. Because the electric waves of thecommunications spreads in the space to reach the image forming apparatus20 and the access point 7, the first communications part 151 triescommunications with the apparatus (in this case, the image formingapparatus 20) indicated by the first IP address included in the firstcommunications information 1100. If the portable terminal 10 ispermitted to carry out communications using 3G or LTE, communicationswith the apparatus indicated by the first IP address may be tried via abase station of the corresponding carrier.

During the period of time during which the first communications part 151is thus trying communications with the image forming apparatus 20, anunder-connection screen page 911 shown in FIG. 11B is displayed on thedisplay unit 102 of the portable terminal 10. The under-connectionscreen page 911 indicates that the portable terminal 10 is underconnection, with an icon 912 and a message 913. Also, a CANCEL button914 for the user to stop/cancel the connection or the print job isdisplayed.

Returning to FIG. 10, in step S704, the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 of the portable terminal 10 determines, based onthe result of communications having been carried out by the firstcommunications part 151, whether communications with the image formingapparatus 20 via the network N1 can be carried out. If communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1 can be carriedout, the process proceeds to step S705. If communications with the imageforming apparatus 20 via the network N1 cannot be carried out, theprocess proceeds to step S706.

The connection possibility determination part 13 determines, using thefirst communications information 1100, whether communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 can be carried out, as follows. For thepurpose of convenience, the description will be made for each use case.

Use Case 1

The portable terminal 10 of the visitor 9 cannot be authenticated instep S701 (authentication failure). Therefore, in use case 1, it is notdetermined in step S704 whether communications is possible.

Use Case 2

It can be considered that, in many cases, the portable terminal 10 ofthe employee 8 can carry out communications with the image formingapparatus 20 using the first communications information 1100. In thiscase, for example, the determination is made using one of the followingmethods (1) through (3).

(1) The first communications part 151 tries to acquire MIB (ManagementInformation Base) information of the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N1. If the MIB information can be acquired, it is determinedthat communications with the image forming apparatus 20 can be carriedout. If the MIB information cannot be acquired, it is determined thatcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 cannot be carriedout. The MIB information can be standard MIB or extended MIB. If thestandard MIB can be acquired, it can be determined that datacommunications with at least a certain apparatus (that may be the imageforming apparatus 20) can be carried out. If the extended MIB can beacquired, it can be determined that data communications with the imageforming apparatus 20 expected by the application of the portableterminal 10 can be carried out. Note that the application is created forthe image forming apparatuses 20 of a specific manufacturer or aspecific apparatus type. Even if the MIB information can be acquired,the apparatus information included in the acquired MIB information maybe different from the apparatus information (for example, included inthe communications information 1000 acquired from the information medium30) of the image forming apparatus 20, with which communications is tobe carried out. In such a case, a determination that communicationscannot be carried out can be made. Thus, the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 can positively determine that communications withthe image forming apparatus 20 that has the information medium 30, fromwhich the communications information 1000 is read, can be carried out.The “apparatus information” is information, for example, to be used touniquely identify the image forming apparatus 20, such as a manufactureunique number (serial number), a MAC (Media Access Control) address, orthe like, of the image forming apparatus 20.

(2) The first communications part 151 uses a WebAPI (Web ApplicationProgramming Interface) provided by the image forming apparatus 20 to tryto acquire the apparatus information via the network N1. The WebAPI is arule to be used when apparatuses A and B carry out a process via anetwork (a method of requesting the process, a method of designatingdata, and/or the like). The information storage part 16 of the portableterminal 10 previously stores the WebAPI. Then, if the apparatusinformation can thus be acquired, it is determined that communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20 can be carried out. If the apparatusinformation cannot be acquired, it is determined that communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20 cannot be carried out. That is, ifthe WebAPI is not unique to the manufacturer of the image formingapparatus 20, it can be determined that data communications can becarried out with at least a certain apparatus (that may be the imageforming apparatus 20). If the WebAPI is unique to the manufacturer ofthe image forming apparatus 20, it can be determined that, because theapparatus information can be acquired, data communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 expected by the application of the portableterminal 10 can be carried out. Even if the apparatus information can beacquired, the acquired apparatus information may be different from theapparatus information of the desired image forming apparatus 20. In sucha case, a determination that communications cannot be carried out can bemade. Thus, the connection possibility determination part 13 canpositively determine that communications with the image formingapparatus 20 having the information medium 30 can be carried out, fromwhich the communications information 1000 is read.

(3) The first communications part 151 tries to acquire the MAC addressof the image forming apparatus 20 using an ARP (Address ResolutionProtocol) via the network N1. Then, if the MAC address can be acquired,it is determined that communications with the image forming apparatus 20can be carried out. If the MAC address cannot be acquired, it isdetermined that communications with the image forming apparatus 20cannot be carried out. If the MAC address can be acquired, it can bedetermined with high accuracy that the apparatus (the image formingapparatus 20) having the IP address stored in the information medium 30is present, and data communications can be carried out with the imageforming apparatus 20 that has the information medium 30. Even if the MACaddress can be acquired, the acquired MAC address may be different fromthe MAC address (acquired from the information medium 30) of the imageforming apparatus 20. In such a case, a determination thatcommunications cannot be carried out can be made. Thus, the connectionpossibility determination part 13 can positively determine thatcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 can be carried out,at which the information medium 30 is placed.

Also in use case 2, there is a situation, as a rare case, where a packettransmitted by the portable terminal 10 of the employee 8 cannot reachthe image forming apparatus 20. As such a situation, there may be a casewhere the power of a router on the path from the access point 7, nearestfrom the portable terminal 10, to the image forming apparatus 20 isturned off, the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 has beenchanged but the change is not reflected in the information medium 30, orthe like.

In such a case, the connection possibility determination part 13determines that communications with the image forming apparatus 20 usingthe first communications information 1100 cannot be carried out, bydetecting a time-out, a communications error (for example, a status codeof 400 is returned in HTTP), or the like.

If a communications error or the like is detected, a retry may becarried out. If it is determined through one of the above-mentionedmethods (1) through (3) that communications cannot be carried out, adetermination that communications cannot be carried out can be madeafter a trial is made once.

Also in a case where communications is tried using 3G or LTE, a time-outor a communications error is detected in the same way.

If the SSID cannot be switched in step S711 (for example, when the firstcommunications information 1100 does not include the password and theportable terminal 10 has not been connected to the intracompany LANuntil now, the portable terminal 10 does not store the password, andthus, it cannot be connected to the. network N1), a determination thatcommunications cannot be carried out can be made without carrying outthe above-mentioned methods (1) through (3).

In step S705, if it is determined in step S704 that communications withthe image forming apparatus 20 via the network N1 can be carried out,the connection possibility determination part 13 of the portableterminal 10 determines to carry out communications with the imageforming apparatus 20 via the network N1 based on the firstcommunications information 1100 included in the communicationsinformation 1000.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 12A, on the display unit 102 of theportable terminal 10, a transmission completion screen page 921 isdisplayed. The transmission completion screen page 921 indicates thattransmission of the print job from the portable terminal 10 to the imageforming apparatus 20 is completed. The transmission completion screenpage 921 includes a message 922 “transmission completed” and an icon 923showing that transmission is completed. The transmission completionscreen page 921 is automatically deleted after being displayed for apredetermined period time, and then, the print condition screen page 901of FIG. 11A is displayed. Alternatively, the print condition screen page901 of FIG. 11A can be displayed as a result of the user pressing(touching) the icon 923.

Returning to FIG. 10, if, in step S701, authentication failure isacquired, or, if, in step S704, it is determined that communicationscannot be carried out, the process proceeds to step S706.

In step S706, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 reads the availability information 1200 included inthe communications information 1000, and determines whether the networkN2 is available. If the network N2 is available, the process proceeds tostep S707. If the network N2 is not available, the process proceeds tostep S710.

Through the determination in step S706, even if, for example, thenetwork N2 can connect between the portable terminal 10 and the imageforming apparatus 20 through P2P such as Wi-Fi Direct, it can bedetermined whether a connection using P2P is permitted. This is because,the user is charged for usage fee as mentioned above, or, generallyspeaking, there is a tendency that a connection using P2P has lowersecurity or the like than a connection via an intracompany LAN using awireless LAN. That is, it is possible that, when the portable terminal10 of the employee 8 cannot connect to the network N1, the employee 8 isprevented from carrying out a connection using P2P even temporarily.Thus, by carrying out the determination in step S705, it is possible toimprove the security.

In step S707, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 compares the SSID included in the secondcommunications information 1300 with the SSID of the network currentlyused for communications, and switches the currently used network to theSSID included in the second communications information 1300 if bothSSIDs are different from one another.

Thereafter, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 requests the second communications part 152 tocarry out communications with the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N2 based on the second communications information 1300 includedin the communications information 1000. Then, the second communicationspart 152 tries to carry out communications with the image formingapparatus 20 via the network N2 based on the second communicationsinformation 1300. That is, the second communications part 152 tries tocarry out communications with the image forming apparatus 20 indicatedby the second IP address included in the second communicationsinformation 1300.

In step S708, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 determines based on the result of communicationsthus carried out by the second communications part 152 whethercommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N2can be carried out. If communications with the image forming apparatus20 via the network N2 can be carried out, the process proceeds to stepS709. If communications with the image forming apparatus 20 via thenetwork N2 cannot be carried out, the process proceeds to step S710.Also during the determination of step S708, the under-connection screenpage of FIG. 11B is displayed continuously.

The connection possibility determination part 13 determines, using thesecond communications information 1300, whether communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 can be carried out, as follows. In thedetermination of step S708, a determination is made in the same way forboth use cases 1 and 2.

That is, it can be considered that the portable terminal 10 of thevisitor 9 and the portable terminal 10 of the employee 8 can transmitand receive packets to/from the image forming apparatus 20 using thesecond communications information 1300. Therefore, for example, it ispossible to make the determination using the above-mentioneddetermination criteria (1) through (3) of step S704.

Even it is a rare case, there may be a case where, because the power isnot supplied to the communications I/F 204 of the image formingapparatus 20, or the communications I/F 204 has a communicationsfailure, the portable terminal 10 cannot transmit and receive packets toand from the image forming apparatus 20 via the network N2. In thiscase, the connection possibility determination part 13 determines thatcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 using the secondcommunications information 1300 cannot be carried out, by detecting afact that no response can be received from the image forming apparatus20, a time-out, or a communications error, or the like.

In step S708, if it is determined that communications with the imageforming apparatus 20 via the network N2 can be carried out, theconnection possibility determination part 13 of the portable terminal 10determines, to carry out communications with the image forming apparatus20 via the network N2 based on the second communications information1300 included in the communications information 1000 (step S709).

In this case, on the display unit 102 of the portable terminal 10, thetransmission completion screen page 921 of FIG. 12A is displayed. Thatis, when the print job is transmitted using either the network N1 or thenetwork N2, the same screen page is displayed. Thus, the user needs notbe aware which network is used. Alternatively, which one of the networkN1 and the network N2 is used by the portable terminal 10 to transmitthe print job can be displayed on the display unit 102. Thereby, theuser as the employee 8 can determine whether the intracompany LAN havinghigher security has been able to be used. In contrast thereto, the useras the visitor 9 can determine that his or her own print job has beentransmitted via a P2P network.

Returning to FIG. 10, in step S710, because it is determined thatcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 cannot be carried outusing either the network N1 or the network N2, the connectionpossibility determination part 13 of the portable terminal 10 determinesthat communications with the image forming apparatus 20 cannot becarried out.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 12B, on the display unit 102 of theportable terminal 10, a communications not-possible screen page 931 isdisplayed. The communications not-possible screen page 931 includes amessage 932 “it is not possible to connect to apparatus” and an OKbutton 933. If the user presses (touches) the OK button 933, the printcondition screen page 901 of FIG. 11A is displayed on the display unit102.

As described above with reference to FIG. 10, in the printing system 1of the first embodiment, the user's work to set the first communicationsinformation 1100 and the second communications information 1300, for theimage forming apparatus 20 connected to the plurality of networks, canbe reduced, and also, each user can automatically select the propernetwork. The employee 8 tries communications using the network N1 first,and, then, tries communications using the network N2 only if the firsttrial is failed. Therefore, the safer network N1 is preferentially used,and communications using the network N2 is also available. Also, it ispossible to prevent the visitor 9 from connecting to the network N1 thatis the intracompany LAN, and permit communications using the network N2.Also, by thus switching the network, it is possible to preventunnecessary communications from occurring which may otherwise occur as aresult of the employee 8 trying communications with the IP addresswritten in the first communications information 1100 using a networksuch as 3G, LTE, or the like, different from the network N1, for whichhigh security is guaranteed.

In other words, it is possible to prevent unnecessary communicationswhich may be problematic from a security viewpoint.

<<Another Example of Communications Information>>

In step S703 of FIG. 10, the connection possibility determination part13 tries communications with the image forming apparatus 20 using thefirst communications information 1100. In step S707, the connectionpossibility determination part 13 tries communications with the imageforming apparatus 20 using the second communications information 1300.Thus, the order of the first communications information 1100 and thesecond communications information 1300 with which a connection is triedis the order (for example, the address order) of the firstcommunications information 1100 and the second communicationsinformation 1300 stored in the communications information 1000 of FIGS.7A and 7B.

A case where the connection possibility determination part 13 firsttries communications using the second communications information 1300,and, then, tries communications using the first communicationsinformation 1100 if communications cannot be carried out using thesecond communications information 1300, will now be considered. In thiscase, if authentication success is acquired (that is, it is determinedthat the user is an employee 8), communications is tried using thesecond communications information 1300 first. Thus, the employee 8 cancarry out communications using the second communications information1300. However, the employee 8's always connecting to the network N2 isnot desirable. Also, if authentication failure is acquired (that is, itis determined that the user is a visitor 9), the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 tries communications using the firstcommunications information 1100 first. Thus, the visitor 9 cannotconnect to the access point 7, and the visitor 9 cannot carry outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20 at all. Therefore,the desirable order of trying communications according to the firstembodiment is such that the first communications information 1100 forthe employees is first, and the second communications information 1300that visitors can use is second.

From the same viewpoint, if the communications information 1000 includesthird communications information, and the third communicationsinformation is for the employees, communications is tried therewithdesirably prior to the second communications information 1300. If thethird communications information can be use by visitors, communicationsis tried therewith desirably after the first communications information1100.

In this regard, as a specific method of controlling the order of tryingconnections, the priority of the communications information can be used.

FIG. 13 illustrates another example of the communications information.In FIG. 13, the first communications information 1100 of the network N1among the plurality of networks has the priority number “1”, and thesecond communications information 1300 of the network N2 has thepriority number “2”. If the communications information 1000 thus has thepriority numbers for the respective networks (i.e., the respective setsof the communications information), the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 tries communications with the image formingapparatus 20 in the stated order of the first communications information1100 (the network N1), and then, the second communications information1300 (the network N2).

Therefore, even if the first communications information 1100 is notstored first in the information medium 30, the order in which thenetworks are used can be flexibly controlled according to the prioritynumbers. That is, through control using the priority numbers, a companywhere the image forming apparatus 20 is installed can give the higherpriority to the first communications information 1100 for the employeesthan the second communications information 1300 that can be used byvisitors.

For example, if the communications information 1000 includes thirdcommunications information, a company where the image forming apparatus20 is installed gives the higher priority to the third communicationsinformation than the second communications information 1300 if it is forthe employees. If the third communications information can be used byvisitors, the company gives the lower priority to the thirdcommunications information than the first communications information1100. That is, to the communications information for the employees, thepriority number less than a threshold is given. To the communicationsinformation that can be used by visitors, the priority number greaterthan the threshold is given. Note that, the less the priority number is,the higher the priority is.

If the communications information 1000 to which the priority is given isstored in the information medium 30, the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 carries out the following process.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of one example of the connection possibilitydetermination process using the priority. Note that, concerning FIG. 14,mainly the differences from FIG. 10 will be described.

In case of authentication success in step S701, all the connectionsusing the communications information having the priority numbers lessthan a threshold (in the case of the communications information of FIG.13, threshold=2) are tried in step S7100. The order of trying theconnections is the order of the priority. If the communicationsinformation is found therefrom with which communications can be carriedout, it is determined in step S705 that communications is carried outusing the communications part 15 corresponding to the foundcommunications information.

If communications cannot be carried out even using the communicationsinformation having the priority numbers less than the threshold, i.e.,(YES in S7100), the process proceeds to step S706. In step S706,connections using the communications information having the prioritynumbers greater than or equal to the threshold are tried in the order ofthe priority.

In case of authentication failure in step S701, the connections usingthe communications information having the priority numbers greater thanor equal to the threshold are tried in step S7200. The order of tryingthe connections is the order of the priority. If the communicationsinformation is found therefrom with which communications can be carriedout, it is determined in step S709 that communications is carried outusing the communications part 15 corresponding to the foundcommunications information.

Thus, in the printing system 1, by using the priority, it is possible toconnect the employee 8 preferentially to the network N1 that is for theemployees, and connect the visitor 9 to the network N2 of P2P.

<<Trial of Communications Based on IP Address>>

Also, it can be determined whether to try to carry out communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20 using one of the plurality ofnetworks, based on the IP address of the portable terminal 10 and the IPaddress of the image forming apparatus 20. For example, it will now beassumed that the IP address of the portable terminal 10 is“192.160.0.4”, the first IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 inthe network N1 is “192.160.0.3”, and the second IP address of the imageforming apparatus 20 in the network N2 is “192.168.20.1”. In this case,the user of the image forming apparatus 20 sets the network N1 havingthe same sub-network address part “192.160.0.0” to be used to carry outcommunications using the communications information for the employees,and sets the network N2 to be used to carry out communications using thecommunications information that can be used by visitors. Thereby, whencommunications is carried out with the image forming apparatus 20 viathe network N1, the communications is within the same sub-net (i.e.,within the same LAN), and thus, it is possible to avoid an increase inthe network traffic.

<Summary of First Embodiment>

Thus, in the printing system 1 according to the first embodiment, theportable terminal 10 acquires, from the information medium 30, theauthentication connection information 900 for carrying outcommunications with the authentication server 80, and the plurality ofsets of the communications information for carrying out communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20. Then, the portable terminal 10 isto be authenticated by the authentication server 80 as to whether itbelongs to an employee. The portable terminal 10 can determine,according to the authentication result, which of the plurality of setsof the communications information is used to carry out communicationswith the image forming apparatus 20. That is, according to theauthentication result, the portable terminal 10 can select one of theplurality of networks connected to the image forming apparatus 20,transmit the print job to the image forming apparatus 20 via theselected network, and print the corresponding print target data.Therefore, the user can carry out communications using the proper one ofthe plurality of networks without manually setting the communicationsinformation corresponding to the proper network to his or her ownportable terminal 10. Thus, it is possible to reduce the management workof the user of the printing system 1.

Second Embodiment

In the first embodiment, the portable terminal 10 carries outcommunications with the authentication server 80 to be authenticatedeach time carrying out communications with the image forming apparatus20. According to a printing system of a second embodiment, as a resultof the portable terminal 10 holding only authentication information thathas been authenticated by the authentication server 80, communicationswith the authentication server 80 when carrying out communications withthe image forming apparatus 20 is made unnecessary.

Throughout the specification, the elements/components having the samereference numerals have the same or similar functions. Therefore, thedescriptions of the elements/components once made may be omitted or onlydifferences may be.described.

<Storing Employee ID and Password in Information Storage Part>

FIG. 15 illustrates a sequence of one example of a procedure of theportable terminal storing the employee ID and the password in theinformation storage part 16. The process of FIG. 15 is started when theuser performs an operation to start the application for beingauthenticated.

In S901, if the user puts the portable terminal 10 over the informationmedium 30, the information acquisition part 12 detects the start ofshort-range wireless communications with the information medium 30, andacquires the communications information 1000 from the information medium30.

In step S902, the information acquisition part 12 of the portableterminal 10 stores the communications information 1000 acquired from theinformation medium 30 in the information storage part 16.

In step S903, the information storage part 16 of the portable terminal10 requests the UI display part 14 to display an authenticationinformation input screen page 941.

In step S904, the UI display part 14 displays the authenticationinformation input screen page 941 on the display unit 102.

In step S905, when the user inputs the employee ID and the password, theoperation reception part 17 transmits the employee ID and the passwordto the UI display part 14.

In step S906, the UI display part 14 transmits the employee ID and thepassword that are thus input by the user to the authentication requestpart 11.

In step S907, the authentication request part 11 reads thecommunications information 1000 from the information storage part 16.Thus, the authentication request part 11 can use the authenticationconnection information 900 and carry out communications with theauthentication server 80. If the user knows the IP address of theauthentication server 80, the user can input the IP address of theauthentication server 80 to the application without the authenticationrequest part 11 reading the authentication connection information 900.

In step S908, the authentication request part 11 transmits anauthentication request together with the employee ID and the password tothe authentication server 80. Thus, the authentication request part 11acquires an authentication result (success or failure) from theauthentication server 80.

In step S909, only if the authentication result is authenticationsuccess, the authentication request part 11 stores the employee ID andthe password in the information storage part 16. Therefore, theinformation storage part 16 stores the employee ID and the password onlyif the portable terminal 10 is authenticated. Thereafter, when theportable terminal 10 is to actually carry out communications with theimage forming apparatus 20, authentication using the employee ID and thepassword is no longer necessary. Therefore, what is stored in theinformation storage part 16 can be information that indicates thatauthentication is finished, or the like.

In step S910, the information storage part 16 requests the connectionpossibility determination part 13 to carry out the connectionpossibility determination process. The process thereafter is inaccordance with the process starting from step S608 of the sequence inthe first embodiment shown in FIG. 9.

<<Authentication Result and Connection Possibility DeterminationProcess>>

With reference to FIG. 16, the connection possibility determinationprocess according to an authentication result will now be described.FIG. 16 is a flowchart of one example of the connection possibilitydetermination process according to the second embodiment. The processstarting from step S702 of FIG. 16 is the same as that in FIG. 10, andtherefore, the differences therebetween will now be described mainly.

In step S701-2 of FIG. 16, the authentication request part 11 of theportable terminal 10 determines whether the authentication informationis stored in the information storage part 16. According to the secondembodiment, without regard to use cases, it is determined whether theauthentication information is stored in the information storage part 16.For example, in the case of an employee of the company A or B describedabove for the first embodiment, the determination result of step S701-2is YES if the user is authenticated by the authentication server 80.However, only with the first communications information 1100, theemployee of the company B cannot connect to the network N1 that is theintracompany LAN in the company A. Therefore, it is determined in stepS704 that communications cannot be carried out, and the employee of thecompany B carries out communications via the network N2.

Also, an employee of the company C has not been authenticated by theauthentication server 80 yet. Therefore, the determination result ofstep S701-2 is NO.

Thus, also according to the second embodiment, visitors 9 are preventedfrom connecting to the network N1 that is the intracompany LAN, and itis possible to connect visitors 9 and employees 8 connect to the propernetworks, respectively.

Thus, according to the second embodiment, in addition to theadvantageous effects of the first embodiment, because the portableterminal 10 previously stores the authentication informationauthenticated by the authentication server 80, it is possible to make,no longer necessary, communications with the authentication server 80when communications with the image forming apparatus 20 is actuallycarried out.

Third Embodiment

It has been already mentioned above that the image forming apparatus 20can be an image projection apparatus (projector), or the like,concerning the first embodiment.

A third embodiment will now be described for a case where the imageforming apparatus 20 is an image projection apparatus (projector).

Throughout the present specification, elements/components having thesame reference numerals have the same or similar functions. Therefore,descriptions for elements/components once made may be omitted or onlydifferences may be described.

FIG. 17 is a functional block diagram of one example of a projectionsystem according to the third embodiment. In FIG. 17, the configurationof the portable terminal 10 is the same as FIG. 6. In contrast thereto,in FIG. 17, the portable terminal 10 carries out communications not withthe image forming apparatus 20 but with an image projection apparatus22. At the image projection apparatus 22, the information medium 30 isplaced. The image projection apparatus 22 has an image projection part23. The information medium 30 is the same as that in the firstembodiment.

The image projection apparatus 22 modulates image data according to aDLP (Digital Light Processing) way or a liquid crystal way, and projectsan image on a screen or a wall. The image data is transmitted to theimage projection apparatus 22 from the portable terminal 10 via thenetwork N1 or N2. The image projection part 23 is implemented by a CPUand a projection engine of a DLP type or a liquid crystal type of theimage projection apparatus 22, and generates a projection image based onthe given image data.

FIG. 18 illustrates a sequence of one example of a projection processaccording to the third embodiment. The process of FIG. 18 is differentfrom the first embodiment in steps S611 through S616 of FIG. 9.Therefore, the processes of steps S611 through S616 will now bedescribed.

In step S611, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 transmits the image projection request to the firstcommunications part 151.

In step S612, the first communications part 151 of the portable terminal10 transmits the image projection request to the image projectionapparatus 22 after receiving the image projection request. That is, theportable terminal 10 transmits the image data to the image projectionapparatus 22 via the network N1 (for example, an intracompany LANconnected through a wireless LAN). The image data is generated from, forexample, an image currently displayed on the display unit 102 of theportable terminal 10, or an image selected by the user.

In step S613, the image projection part 23 of the image projectionapparatus 22 projects the corresponding image after receiving the imageprojection request from the portable terminal 10. Thus, the user canproject the desired image through the image projection apparatus 22.

In step S614, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 transmits the image projection request to thesecond communications part 152.

In step S615, the second communications part 152 of the portableterminal 10 transmits the image projection request to the imageprojection apparatus 22 after receiving the image projection request.That is, the portable terminal 10 transmits the image data to the imageprojection apparatus 22 via the network N2 (for example, P2P using Wi-FiDirect).

In step S616, the image projection part 23 of the image projectionapparatus 22 projects the corresponding image after receiving the imageprojection request from the portable terminal 10. Thus, the user canproject the desired image through the image projection apparatus 22.

If the portable terminal 10 causes the image forming apparatus 20 tocarry out printing in the above-described first embodiment, the portableterminal 10 waits for printing completion after transmitting the printjob to the image forming apparatus 20. In contrast thereto, if theportable terminal 10 causes the image projection apparatus 22 to projectan image according to the third embodiment, the portable terminal 10 cancause the image projection apparatus 22 to project images a plurality oftimes.

For example, if the portable terminal 10 updates a static imagedisplayed on the display unit 102 (for example, by switching among aplurality of images, magnifying or reducing in size, changing the areaof an image to display, or the like), or the user again selects animage, the portable terminal 10 transmits the corresponding image datato the image projection apparatus 22. If the portable terminal 10displays a moving image on the display unit 102, the portable terminal10 periodically takes the image, generates the corresponding image data,and transmits it to the image projection apparatus 22. The format of theimage data can be any one such as JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, or the like, aslong as the image projection apparatus 22 is capable of processing thecorresponding image data.

The portable terminal 10 can transmit a file including an image(s) as itis. For example, a PDF file, a MPEG file, or the like, can betransmitted. In this case, the image projection apparatus 22 projectsthe image(s) after opening the file and converting the file into theimage(s).

In the projection system according to the third embodiment, in additionto the advantageous effects of the first embodiment, it is possible tocarry out communications using the proper network of wirelesscommunications from the portable terminal 10, and transmit necessarydata such as image data therethrough.

Fourth Embodiment

According to a fourth embodiment, in the printing system 1, the portableterminal 10 creates a server, and the image forming apparatus 20transmits a request to the server. As a result, the portable terminal 10acquires the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 concerning thenetwork N1 or N2.

<Software Configuration>

FIG. 19 is a functional block diagram of one example of the printingsystem 1 according to the fourth embodiment. According to the fourthembodiment, elements/components having the same reference numerals asthose of FIG. 6 have the same or similar functions. Therefore, mainly,characterized features of the fourth embodiment will be described.

<<Functions of Portable Terminal>>

The portable terminal 10 according to the fourth embodiment newlyincludes a proximity communications part 41, a job control part 42, anetwork switching part 43, and a server creation part 44. A server part44 a drawn by a broken line in FIG. 19 will be described later.

The proximity communications part 41 is implemented by the CPU 106, theshort-range wireless communications unit 109, and so forth, shown inFIG. 3, and carries out wireless communications with the image formingapparatus 20 within a distance of several meters, or so. As will bedescribed later, the proximity communications part 41 receives thecommunications information 1000, and transmits URL information 5000 thatwill be described later. The proximity communications part 41 carriesout communications according to the communications standard of Bluetooth(registered trademark) Low Energy (hereinafter, simply referred to as“BLE”). The actual communications procedure thereof is known, andtherefore, the detailed description will be omitted.

According to the fourth embodiment, the communications information 1000does not include the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20. Oneexample of the communications information 1000 according to the fourthembodiment is shown below as Table 2.

TABLE 2 ITEM NAME ITEM VALUE

 1000 AUTHENTICATION SERVER 192.168.0.100 IP ADDRESS SSL COMMUNICATIONSYes {close oversize brace} 900 . . . SSL COMMUNICATIONS Yes {closeoversize brace} 1100 SSID ABC123 NETWORK N2 AVAILABILITY Yes } 1200 SSID456DEF ENCRYPTION METHOD WPA/WPA2-PSK PASSWORD ****** HTTP PORT NUMBER 80 {close oversize brace} 1300 HTTPS PORT NUMBER 443 PORT NUMBER OFSERVER 50000  OF PORTABLE TERMINAL . . .

In the communications information 1000 of Table 2, the firstcommunications information 1100 does not include the IP address of theimage forming apparatus 20, and the second communications information1300 does not include the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20,either. This is because, the IP address is transmitted to the portableterminal 10 from the image forming apparatus 20 when the image formingapparatus 20 carries out communications with the server part 44 a of theportable terminal 10. The second communications information 1300includes, different from the first through third embodiments, “PORTNUMBER OF SERVER OF PORTABLE TERMINAL”. “PORT NUMBER OF SERVER OFPORTABLE TERMINAL” is used for the image forming apparatus 20 to carryout communications with the server part 44 a.

The job control part 42 is implemented by the CPU 106, and so forth,shown in FIG. 3, and carries out a process of requesting the imageforming apparatus 20 to execute a job such as a printing job.

The network switching part 43 switches the network N1 (or anothernetwork, to which the portable terminal 10 currently connects) to thenetwork N2, to which the portable terminal 10 is to connect. Actually,the network switching part 43 creates the second communications part152, to which the second communications information 1300 is applied(i.e., the second communications information 1300 is set to the secondcommunications part 152). However, depending on the OS of the portableterminal 10, the user's permission or operation can be needed therefor.There is a case where the portable terminal 10 is not connected tonetworks, at all. In this case, the portable terminal 10 can beconnected to the network N2.

The server creation part 44 is implemented by the CPU 106, and so forth,shown in FIG. 3, and creates a server in the portable terminal 10. Thecreated server is the server part 44 a. “Creating a server” meanspreparing a response corresponding to a HTTP (or HTTPS) request. Thefunction of the server part 44 a will be described later with referenceto FIG. 21. Generally speaking, such a configuration is provided thataccessing the portable terminal 10 from the outside (from the imageforming apparatus 20, or the like) cannot be carried out, from asecurity viewpoint. However, by creating the server part 44 a,communications with the portable terminal 10 from the outside can becarried out through HTTP communications or the like.

The server creation part 44 creates URL information 5000 to be used toreceive communications that is carried out for the created server part44 a. The URL information 5000 includes information for the imageforming apparatus 20 to generate a URL of the server part 44 a. How tocreate the URL information 5000 will be described later with referenceto FIG. 20. The URL information 5000 is transmitted by the proximitycommunications part 41 to the image forming apparatus 20.

<<Image Forming Apparatus>>

The image forming apparatus 20 according to the fourth embodiment newlyincludes a proximity communications part 36, and a communications part35. The proximity communications part 36 is implemented by the CPU 211,the short-range wireless communications unit 301, and so forth, shown inFIG. 4, and carries out wireless communications with the portableterminals 10 within a distance on the order of serval meters. As will bedescribed later, the proximity communications part 36 receives the URLinformation 5000, and transmits the communications information 1000.

The communications part 35 includes a third communications part 351 anda fourth communications part 352. The third communications part 351connects to the network N1 and carries out communications with theportable terminal 10. The fourth communications part 352 connects to thenetwork N2, and carries out communications with the portable terminal10. The third communications part 351 includes the IP address includedin the first communications information 1100 of the first through thirdembodiments. The fourth communications part 352 includes the IP addressincluded in the second communications information 1300 of the firstthrough third embodiments.

The image forming apparatus 20 includes a communications information DB31. The communications information DB 31 is created in the HDD 215, theRAM 212, the ROM 213, the NVRAM 214, or the like, shown in FIG. 4. Thecommunications information DB 31 stores the communications information1000 of Table 2.

Concerning the fourth embodiment, a description will be made assumingthat the short-range wireless communications units 109 and 301 carry outcommunications using BLE. However, the short-range wirelesscommunications units 109 and 301 can be NFC reader/writers, or devicesthat are capable of carrying out communications using infrared rays, orthe like.

<URL Information 5000>

With reference to FIG. 20, the URL information 5000 will now bedescribed. FIG. 20 illustrates one example of the URL information andthe URL. The URL information 5000 created by the server creation part 44of the portable terminal 10 includes three items of information, i.e.,the IP address of the portable terminal 10, a port number, and aone-time password.

The “IP address of the portable terminal 10” is an IP address fixed forthe portable terminal 10 or given by a DHCP server. The IP address canbe detected by a command such as, for example, “ipconfig”, and is knownby the portable terminal 10.

The “port number” is “PORT NUMBER OF SERVER OF PORTABLE TERMINAL”included in the second communications information 1300 transmitted bythe image forming apparatus 20. The port number is the port number of aport of the portable terminal 10, at which the portable terminal 10waits for communications from the image forming apparatus 20.

The “one-time password” is information for the portable terminal 10 toauthenticate the image forming apparatus 20, and is changed each timethe server creation part 44 creates the URL information 5000. Theone-time password is, for example, a combination of alphanumericcharacters determined randomly. In other words, the image formingapparatus 20 that designates the one-time password to connect to theportable terminal 10 is authenticated as being the image formingapparatus 20, to which the portable terminal 10 has transmitted the URLinformation 5000.

Thus, by using the URL information 5000, the image forming apparatus 20can acquire information necessary to carry out communications with theserver part 44 a of the portable terminal 10, such as the IP address andthe port number. The communications part (both the third communicationspart 351 and the fourth communications part 352) of the image formingapparatus 20 creates a URL according to the HTTP communicationsspecifications, using the URL information 5000. Thus, the communicationspart 35 of the image forming apparatus 20 can carry out communicationswith the server part 44 a created in the portable terminal 10. Notethat, the server creation part 44 of the portable terminal 10 cantransmit, instead of the URL information 5000, the URL itself, to theimage forming apparatus 20.

Because the URL is an address, with which the image forming apparatus 20carries out communications with the server part 44 a, the portableterminal 10 can determine that the image forming apparatus 20 carriesout communications using the URL information 5000, if the server part 44a and the image forming apparatus 20 carry out communications.

The URL information 5000 is transmitted from the portable terminal 10 tothe image forming apparatus 20 for each of the networks N1 and N2 (eachtime the network is switched). The IP address depends on one fixed forthe portable terminal 10 or given by the DHCP server. The port numberdepends on “PORT NUMBER OF SERVER OF PORTABLE TERMINAL” transmitted bythe image forming apparatus 20. Therefore, The URL information 5000 canbe fixed except for the one-time password. The reason why the URLinformation 5000 is transmitted each time the network is switched isthat (i) the IP address included in the URL information 5000 may bechanged as a result of the network being switched; (ii) the transmissionis used as a trigger for the image forming apparatus 20 to startcommunications with the server part 44 a; and (iii) the one-timepassword is to be transmitted.

Note that, among the URL information, the IP address of the portableterminal 10 can be transmitted as a host name instead of the IP address.In this case, the server creation part 44 previously registers, in a DNC(Domain Name System) server, the IP address of the portable terminal 10(the URL not including the port number) and the host name in manner ofassociating with one another.

<Function of Server Part>

The functions of the server part 44 a will now be described. First, a“server” means a service providing part (a computer or a device) that,in a network, provides a function(s), a service(s), data, or the like,to another computer. The service providing part is actually called a“server”, a “server apparatus”, or the like. The server part 44 aaccording to the fourth embodiment operates as a server having thismeaning. However, the server part 44 a has a function to detect that theimage forming apparatus 20 can connect to the portable terminal 10, anda function to acquire the address information of the image formingapparatus 20. The address information of the image forming apparatus 20is information to be used to uniquely identify the image formingapparatus 20 in the network N1 or N2.

Specific examples of the address information of the image formingapparatus 20 include a URI, a URL, a host name, an IP address, and soforth, of the image forming apparatus 20. Concerning the fourthembodiment, the description will be made using the “IP address” as oneexample of the address information.

FIG. 21 is a sequence diagram of one example of functions of the serverpart 44 a. FIG. 21 illustrates a process to be carried out after the URLinformation 5000 is transmitted to the image forming apparatus 20.

Step S1: As mentioned above, as a result of the portable terminal 10having the server part 44 a, the image forming apparatus 20 can accessthe portable terminal 10 using a request for HTTP communications, or thelike, which designates the URL.

Step S2: The server part 44 a acquires a password transmitted for theabove-mentioned URL, and determines whether the password is coincidentwith the password included in the URL information 5000.

Step S3: If they are coincident, the server part 44 a transmitsinformation “communications OK” (a status code 200) to the image formingapparatus 20 via the first communications part 151 or the secondcommunications part 152. The information “communications OK” (the statuscode 200) denotes that communications succeeds.

Step S4: In contrast, if the passwords are not coincident, the serverpart 44 a transmits information “communications NG” (a status code 401)to the image forming apparatus 20 via the first communications part 151or the second communications part 152. The information “communicationsNG” (the status code 401) denotes that authentication is failed(“Unauthorized”). The status code 401 can be another status code of 400s.

Step S5: The server part 44 a acquires the IP address of the imageforming apparatus 20. As a result of the first communications part 151or the second communications part 152 receiving the request, it canacquire the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 included in theIP header that is transmitted/received through the TCP/IP layer.

Steps S6 through S8: The image forming apparatus 20 repetitiouslytransmits the HTTP communications request to the server part 44 a (untilthe image forming apparatus 2 receives the information “communicationsOK”, because the image forming apparatus 2 cannot determine that therequest of step S1 has been received by the server part 44 a). Thecreated server part 44 a returns the information “communications OK”only to the first request received after the creation of the server part44 a, and returns the information “communications NG” (the status code404) to the second or more request even if the passwords are coincident.The status code 404 denotes that the requested resource has not beenfound (“Not Found”). Another status code of 400 s can be created for thesecond or more request.

As a result of the information “communications NG” being returned to thesecond or more request, the portable terminal 10 can be prevented fromerroneously determining an apparatus other than the image formingapparatus 20 as the image forming apparatus 20 even if the portableterminal 10 receives the request from the other apparatus.

Thus, by creating the server part 44 a, the portable terminal 10 canacquire the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 even if theportable terminal 10 does not acquire the IP address of the imageforming apparatus 20 from the image forming apparatus 20 through BLE orthe like.

<Process Detail>

Next, the process of the printing system 1 according to the fourthembodiment will be described in detail.

<<Overall Operation>>

With reference to FIG. 22, a flow of a printing process of the printingsystem 1 according to the fourth embodiment will now be described. FIG.22 is a sequence diagram of one example of the printing process foracquiring the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 according tothe fourth embodiment.

Step S11: The user operates a screen page displayed on the UI displaypart 14 of the portable terminal 10 to input an instruction to carry outprinting. The operation reception part 17 of the portable terminal 10receives the instruction to carry out printing. The user then selectsdesired print target data from the application installed in the portableterminal 10, and inputs an instruction to print it. As a result, a printjob including the print target data thus selected by the user isgenerated. In response to the printing instruction being thus input, theprint condition screen page 901 of FIG. 11A is displayed on the displayunit 102 of the portable terminal 10.

Step S12: The user follows a guidance written in the screen page, andholds and moves the portable terminal 10 closer to the short-rangewireless communications unit 301 of the image forming apparatus 20.According to BLE, devices can carry out communications within a distancetherebetween on the order of several meters. However, because aplurality of the image forming apparatuses 20 may be placed nearby, theportable terminal 10 detects that the user intentionally holds and movesthe portable terminal 10 closer to the image forming apparatus 20 withina predetermined distance. Actually, the proximity communications part 41of the portable terminal 10 detects that the portable terminal 10approaches the image forming apparatus 20 nearer than 10 through 50 cm,or so. This distance can be set by the user.

The distance detection will now be described. The image formingapparatus 20 transmits advertise packets within a range (several meters)where communications is available using BLE. The advertise packetsinclude an output of the short-range wireless communications unit 301.The short-range wireless communications unit 109 detects the radio fieldintensity when receiving BLE electric waves (i.e., “received radio fieldintensity”). The proximity communications part 41 of the portableterminal 10 converts the difference or the ratio between the output andthe received radio field intensity to the distance using a predeterminedconversion formula or table. Thus, the proximity communications part 41of the portable terminal 10 can detect the distance from the imageforming apparatus 20.

The proximity communications part 41 can start communications with theimage forming apparatus 20 also without determining that the distance iswithin the range.

Step S12-1: The proximity communications part 41 of the portableterminal 10 starts receiving electric waves as a result of approachingthe image forming apparatus 20 within several meters, or so, and furtherrepeats detection of the distance to the image forming apparatus 20until approaching within a predetermined distance.

Step S12-2: After the proximity communications part 41 of the portableterminal 10 determines that it approaches the image forming apparatus 20within the predetermined distance, the proximity communications part 41starts communications with the image forming apparatus 20 (declares tostart communications). Thus, the proximity communications part 41 of theportable terminal 10 connects to the BLE network.

Step S12-3: Then, the proximity communications part 41 of the portableterminal 10 requests the communications information 1000 from the imageforming apparatus 20 via the BLE network. Actually, by designating a“characteristic” that requests the communications information 1000, theproximity communications part 41 requests the communications information1000. The proximity communications part 36 of the image formingapparatus 20 receives the request for the communications information1000, reads the communications information 1000 from the communicationsinformation DB 31, and transmits it to the portable terminal 10. Theproximity communications part 41 of the portable terminal 10 stores thereceived communications information 1000 in the information storage part16.

The following steps S12-4 through S15-1 are carried out by the portableterminal 10 to acquire the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20concerning the network N1 and the IP address of the image formingapparatus 20 concerning the network N2 (the process is repeated for thenumber of networks).

Step S12-4: The network switching part 43 switches the network, to whichthe portable terminal 10 currently connects, to the network N1. Thisprocess needs not be carried out if the portable terminal 10 has alreadyconnected to the network N1.

Step S12-5: As a result of the portable terminal 10 connecting to theBLE network, the server creation part 44 of the portable terminal 10creates the server part 44 a. Also, the server creation part 44 createsthe URL information 5000 using the communications information 1000acquired from the image forming apparatus 20. In this regard, the IPaddress of the portable terminal 10 is known, “PORT NUMBER OF SERVER OFPORTABLE TERMINAL” is described in the second communications information1300, and a one-time password can be freely created.

Step S12-6: The proximity communications part 41 of the portableterminal 10 transmits the URL information 5000 to the image formingapparatus 20 via the BLE network. Actually, by designating a“characteristic” to be used for transmitting the URL information 5000and storing the URL information 5000 therein, the proximitycommunications part 41 transmits the URL information 5000.

It is preferable that the proximity communications part 41 previouslyencrypts the URL information 5000. For this purpose, a fixed value thatis previously set in the program 108 a of the portable terminal 10 andthe programs 215 a of the image forming apparatus 20 can be used.Alternatively, the fixed value can be exchanged therebetween when theBLE communications in step S12-2 is started.

If the proximity communications part 36 of the image forming apparatus20 receives a “characteristic” not present in the image formingapparatus 20, the proximity communications part 3 detects an error, anddoes not carry out the process thereafter.

After the portable terminal 10 thus transmits the URL information 5000,the under-connection screen page 911 of FIG. 11B is displayed on thedisplay unit 102 of the portable terminal 10.

Step S12-6-1-1: The communication part 35 of the image forming apparatus20 uses the URL information 5000 to create the URL as shown in FIG. 20.In response to thus acquiring the URL information 5000, thecommunication part 35 of the image forming apparatus 20 triescommunications with the server part 44 a of the portable terminal 10 viathe network N1. It is assumed that the third communications part 351 ofthe image forming apparatus 20 has already connected to the network N1.Also, It is assumed that the fourth communications part 352 of the imageforming apparatus 20 has already connected to the network N2, or thereis no problem for the fourth communications part 352 to connect to thenetwork N2.

Step S13: During a predetermined waiting period of time after theproximity communications part 41 transmitted the URL information 5000,the server part 44 a of the portable terminal 10 waits for a HTTPcommunications request. The waiting period of time is, for example,several seconds. However, it is not necessary to be limited thereto. Itis preferable that the user can set it from a screen page. The thirdcommunications part 351 of the image forming apparatus 20 designates theIP address and the port number of the server part 44 a in the URL, andtransmits the HTTP communications request. The HTTP communicationsrequest includes the one-time password. Various “methods” can be usedfor the HTTP communications request. For example, POST, GET, or thelike, is used. According to the fourth embodiment, any “method” can beused. This is because, the HTTP communications request is transmittedfor the image forming apparatus 20 to send the IP address of the imageforming apparatus 20 to the portable terminal 10. What is necessary isthat an IP protocol is used for transmitting an IP address. Thus, acommunications protocol higher than an IP protocol is not limited toHTTP communications. For example, HTTPS, HTTP/2, FTP (File TransferProtocol), or the like, can be used. Also, UDP can be used instead ofTCP.

If the third communications part 351 of the image forming apparatus 20transmits the HTTP communications request, the first communications part151 of the portable terminal 10 receives the HTTP communicationsrequest, and transmits it to the server part 44 a. As mentioned above,if the one-time passwords agree, the server part 44 a returns a responseof the status code 200 in response to the first request after the URLinformation 5000 is transmitted. The server part 44 a returns a responseof the status code 404 for the second or more request. This is because,if the status code is not “200”, the image forming apparatus 20 cannotdetermine that the portable terminal 10 has received the request, andtherefore, the image forming apparatus 20 repetitiously transmits therequest of step S13.

Step S13-1: The server part 44 a of the portable terminal 10 can acquirethe IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 (the IP address of thefirst communications information 1100 according to the first through thethird embodiments, not included in the communications information 1000according to the fourth embodiment). The server part 44 a of theportable terminal 10 stores the IP address of the image formingapparatus 20 in the information storage part 16.

Step S14 : Because the server part 44 a can thus have acquired the IPaddress of the image forming apparatus 20, the server part 44 a becomesno longer necessary, and therefore, the server creation part 44 deletesthe server part 44 a.

Step S15: Also, because the server part 44 a can thus have acquired theIP address of the image forming apparatus 20, the image formingapparatus 20 no longer needs to transmit the request. Therefore, theproximity communications part 41 of the portable terminal 10 transmits arequest end notification to the image forming apparatus 20. Actually,the proximity communications part 41 writes a predetermined value (=0)in a “characteristic” that is used to send information indicating theend of the request.

Step S15-1: The proximity communications part 36 of the image formingapparatus 20 acquires the request end notification, and causes the thirdcommunications part 351 to end transmitting the request.

Then, again the process is carried out from step S12-4. Thus, theportable terminal 10 switches the network N1, to which the portableterminal 10 itself connects, to the network N2, and carries out stepsS12-5 through S15-1. Thus, the URL information of a second time istransmitted to the image forming apparatus 20. Therefore, the serverpart 44 a of the portable terminal 10 can acquire the IP address of theimage forming apparatus 20 (the IP address of the second communicationsinformation 1300 in the first through third embodiments, not included inthe communications information 1000 according to the fourth embodiment).

Step S16: The proximity communications part 41 of the portable terminal10 ends the BLE communications (declares communications end). Thereby,the portable terminal 10 comes to not connect to the BLE network.

<<Authentication>>

Thus, the communications information 1000 equivalent to one according tothe first through third embodiments including the IP address can beacquired. Thus, the portable terminal 10 is authenticated, anddetermines whether a connection can be carried out, in the same way asthe first embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a sequence diagram of one example of a printing processaccording to the fourth embodiment. The process of FIG. 23 is carriedout subsequent to FIG. 22. Note that, concerning FIG. 23, thedifferences from FIG. 9 will be described mainly.

Through the process of FIG. 22, the information storage part 16 storesthe communications information including the IP addresses. In step S605,the authentication request part 11 of the portable terminal 10 reads theemployee ID and the password from the information storage part 16.

In step S606, the authentication request part 11 of the portableterminal 10 uses the authentication connection information 900 includedin the communications information 1000 to connect to the authenticationserver 80, and transmits thereto an authentication request together withthe authentication information (the employee ID and the password). Thus,the authentication request part 11 acquires the authentication result(success or failure) from the authentication server 80.

In step S607, the authentication request part 11 of the portableterminal 10 transmits a determination request to the connectionpossibility determination part 13 to determine which one of theplurality of sets of communications information included in thecommunications information 1000 is to be used to carry outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20.

In step S608, the connection possibility determination part 13 of theportable terminal 10 then carries out the connection possibilitydetermination process. The connection possibility determination processcan be the same as one in the first embodiment.

Thereafter, the process of FIG. 10 is carried out. In FIG. 10,communications is tried using the first communications information 1100in step S703. At this time, the 12 address is not included the firstcommunications information 1100 of in the fourth embodiment. Therefore,the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20 acquired for the firsttime in step S13-1 of FIG. 22 is used. In the same way, in step S707,communications is tried using the second communications information1300. In step S707, the network switching part 43 of the portableterminal 10 switches the network N1, to which the portable terminal 10is currently connected, to the network N2. At this time, because thesecond communications information 1300 of the fourth embodiment does notinclude the IP address, the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20acquired for the second time in step S13-1 of FIG. 22 is used.

Thus, also in the fourth embodiment, it is determined whether the firstcommunications part 151 or the second communications part 152 is to beused to carry out communications. Then, either the first communicationspart 151 or the second communications part 152 carries outcommunications with the image forming apparatus 20, and requests it toexecute the job.

As described above, in the printing system 1 according to the fourthembodiment, the server part 44 a is created in the portable terminal 10.Thus, the portable terminal 10 can acquire the IP address of the imageforming apparatus 20. The portable terminal 10 can be authenticated bythe authentication server 80 using the communications information 1000acquired through BLE, and request the image forming apparatus 20 toexecute the job using the IP address of the image forming apparatus 20that the server part 44 a acquires. Therefore, the user's work to setthe first communications information 1100 and the second communicationsinformation 1300 for the image forming apparatus 20 connected to theplurality of networks can be reduced, and also, each user canautomatically select the proper network.

<Other Application Examples>

Thus, the non-transitory computer-readable information recording media,the information processing apparatuses, and the communications systemshave been described in the embodiments. However, application of thepresent disclosure is not limited to the embodiments, and variousmodifications and replacements can be made.

Note that, the image forming apparatus 20 is one example of an“apparatus”; the portable terminal 10 is one example of an “informationprocessing apparatus”; the network N1 is one example of a “firstnetwork”; the network N2 is one example of a “third network”; and thenetwork, to which the portable terminal 10 is connected before beingconnected to the network N1, is one example of a “second network”. Theoperation reception part 17 is one example of an identificationinformation reception part; the information acquisition part 12 is oneexample of an “acquisition part”; the connection possibilitydetermination part 13 is one example of a “determination part”; thecommunications switching control part 18 is one example of a“communications switching control part”; and the communication part 15is one example of a “requesting part”. The authentication request part11 is one example of an “authentication,result acquisition part”; theauthentication server 80 is one example of an “authentication unit”; andthe information storage part 16 is one example of an “informationstorage part”.

According to the embodiments, it is possible to provide a programconfigured to, when a terminal or the like transmits a request to anapparatus which is connectable to a plurality of networks, connect to aproper one of the plurality of networks.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory computer-readable informationrecording medium storing a program, the program being configured tocause at least one processor installed in an information processingapparatus to: request, via one of a plurality of networks, an apparatusto carry out a process, the apparatus being connectable to the pluralityof networks; receive identification information that is used to identifya user; acquire a plurality of sets of communications information thatincludes a first set of communications information to be used to connectto the apparatus via a first network of the networks; determine, basedon the identification information, whether to use the first network torequest the apparatus to carry out the process; when determining to usethe first network to request the apparatus to carry out the process,switch a second network of the networks, which is used to carry outcommunications, to the first network to be used to carry outcommunications, the second network being different from the firstnetwork; and request, via the first network, the apparatus to carry outthe process.
 2. The non-transitory computer-readable informationrecording medium as claimed in claim 1, wherein the program furthercauses the at least one processor to acquire an authentication resultfrom an authentication unit, determine, according to the authenticationresult, whether the first network or a third network of the networksdifferent from the first network is to be used to request the apparatusto carry out the process, try to wirelessly connect to the apparatususing the first set of communications information, if the authenticationresult indicates authentication success, and try to wirelessly connectto the apparatus using a second set of the communications information,if the authentication result indicates authentication failure.
 3. Thenon-transitory computer-readable information recording medium as claimedin claim 2, wherein the program further causes the at least oneprocessor to try to request, using the second set of communicationsinformation, the apparatus to carry out the process, if the at least oneprocessor determines that it is not possible to request, using the firstset of communications information, the apparatus to carry out theprocess.
 4. The non-transitory computer-readable information recordingmedium as claimed in claim 2, wherein the respective sets ofcommunications information have priority settings, the first set ofcommunications information has the propriety setting greater than orequal to a threshold, and the second set of communications informationhas the propriety setting less than the threshold, the program furthercauses the at least one processor to when acquiring the authenticationresult indicating authentication success, try to wirelessly connect tothe apparatus using the second set of communications information, if itis not possible to wirelessly connect to the apparatus using the firstset of communications information after trying to wirelessly connect tothe apparatus using the first set of communications information, and tryto wirelessly connect to the apparatus using the second set ofcommunications information if the authentication result indicatesauthentication failure.
 5. The non-transitory computer-readableinformation recording medium as claimed in claim 2, wherein the programfurther causes the at least one processor to acquire authenticationconnection information to be used to connect to the authentication unit,as well as the sets of communications information, transmit theauthentication information and request the authentication unit toauthenticate the information processing apparatus and acquire theauthentication result from the authentication unit, using theauthentication connection information, if the information processingapparatus stores the authentication information to be used toauthenticate the information processing apparatus, and not request theauthentication unit to authenticate the information processing apparatusand regard that the authentication result indicating authenticationfailure is acquired, if the information processing apparatus does notstore the authentication information to be used to authenticate theinformation processing apparatus.
 6. The non-transitorycomputer-readable information recording medium as claimed in claim 5,wherein the program further causes the at least one processor totransmit the authentication information and acquire the authenticationresult from the authentication unit, each time before trying to connectto the apparatus.
 7. The non-transitory computer-readable informationrecording medium as claimed in claim 5, wherein the program furthercauses the at least one processor to store predetermined information inan information storage part only if the authentication result indicatingauthentication success is acquired in response to transmitting theauthentication information to the authentication unit, and regard,before trying to wirelessly connect to the apparatus, that theauthentication result indicating authentication success is acquired, ifthe predetermined information is stored in the information storage part.8. The non-transitory computer-readable information recording medium asclaimed in claim 2, wherein at least one of the sets of communicationsinformation includes a setting as to whether to permit a connection, andthe program further causes the at least one processor to try to connectto the apparatus using only a set of the communications informationincluding the setting to permit a connection to the apparatus.
 9. Thenon-transitory computer-readable information recording medium as claimedin claim 2, wherein the program further causes the at least oneprocessor to acquire the sets of communications information from a NFCtag placed at or near the apparatus via short-range wirelesscommunications.
 10. An information processing apparatus comprising atleast one processor, the at least one processor being configured torequest, via one of a plurality of networks, an apparatus to carry out aprocess, the apparatus being connectable to the plurality of networks;receive identification information that is used to identify a user;acquire a plurality of sets of communications information that includesa first set of the communications information to be used to connect tothe apparatus via a first network of the networks; determine, based onthe identification information, whether to use the first network torequest the apparatus to carry out the process; when determining to usethe first network to request the apparatus to carry out the process,switch a second network of the networks, which is used to carry outcommunications, to the first network to be used to carry outcommunications, the second network being different from the firstnetwork; and request, via the first network, the apparatus to carry outthe process.
 11. A communications system comprising an apparatusconnectable to a plurality of networks and an information processingapparatus, the communications system comprising at least one processor,the at least one processor being configured to request, via one of thenetworks, the apparatus to carry out a process; receive identificationinformation that is used to identify a user; acquire a plurality of setsof the communications information that includes a first set of thecommunications information to be used to connect to the apparatus via afirst network of the networks; determine, based on the identificationinformation, whether to use the first network to request the apparatusto carry out the process; when determining to use the first network torequest the apparatus to carry out the process, switch a second networkof the networks, which is used by the information processing apparatusto carry out communications, to the first network to be used by theinformation processing apparatus to carry out communications, the secondnetwork being different from the first network; and request, via thefirst network, the apparatus to carry out the process.